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By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli forces killed at least 16 Palestinians across Gaza on Thursday and wounded dozens in the south of the enclave, local medics said, as residents reported that Gaza City suburbs were under intensifying bombardment.
The Israeli military is preparing to seize Gaza City, the territory's largest urban centre, despite international calls on Israel to desist over fears that a ground offensive would cause significant casualties and displace the roughly one million Palestinians sheltering there.
In Gaza City residents said families were fleeing their homes, with most heading towards the coast, as Israeli forces shelled the eastern suburbs of Shejaia, Zeitoun, and Sabra. Thursday's deaths took to 71 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said.
Israeli officials describe Gaza City as the last urban stronghold of Hamas, which ignited the war with its deadly October 2023 attack on Israel. The Islamist militant group has since been decimated by Israel's air and ground war in Gaza.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was continuing to operate throughout the enclave targeting what it described as "terrorist organizations" and infrastructure.
The military had killed three militants in the past day, it said, without saying how they had identified the individuals.
FOUR DEAD, DOZENS WOUNDED IN SOUTHERN GAZA
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross said 31 patients, most with gunshot wounds, were admitted to the Red Cross Field Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Four of them were declared dead on arrival.
"Patients said they were injured while trying to reach food distribution sites," the spokesperson said, adding that since the aid hubs began operations on May 27, the hospital had treated over 5,000 "weapon-wounded patients".
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Israel's expanded military operation in Gaza City would have "devastating consequences".
Guterres also said U.N.-led humanitarian efforts in the devastated Palestinian enclave were being blocked or delayed and people were dying of hunger as a "result of deliberate decisions that defy basic humanity".
"Starvation of the civilian population must never be used as a method of warfare. Civilians must be protected. Humanitarian access must be unimpeded," he said. "No more excuses. No more obstacles. No more lies."
Israel has denied trying to starve Gaza, accusing Hamas of stealing aid shipments and blaming foreign aid groups for failures in delivering supplies where most needed. Both blame Israeli restrictions on aid access for spreading starvation.
With the enclave in the grips of a humanitarian crisis, the Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that four more people, including two children, had died of malnutrition and starvation in the enclave, raising the number of deaths from such causes to 317 people, including 121 children, since the war started.
Israel disputes the health ministry's fatality figures and on Wednesday asked a global hunger monitor to retract an assessment that found that Gaza City and surrounding areas are suffering from famine.
Dozens of Palestinians were admitted to Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis with gunshot wounds, according to a doctor there who said soldiers had fired on a crowd of Palestinians that had gathered near an aid distribution hub.
Mohammad Saqer, the head of nursing, told Reuters most of the patients had been admitted with gunshot wounds to the upper parts of the body and that many were in critical condition.
The patients had reported they were shot as they sought to collect food from a distribution site in Rafah, he said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The war broke out when Hamas-led militants launched a surprise, cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage. Most of the hostages have since been released through diplomatic negotiations, though 50 remain, of whom 20 are said to be alive.
Israel has not responded publicly to Hamas' acceptance of a proposal for a ceasefire that would allow for the return of some of the hostages. Israeli officials have, however, insisted that they would only accept a deal that sees all of the hostages released and the surrender of Hamas.
More than 62,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed by the Israeli military, according to local health officials, who have not said how many combatants have been killed in the fighting.
Israel's military campaign, which it says is directed toward Gaza's rulers Hamas, has widely demolished the territory and displaced most of the roughly two million Palestinians there.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv, Emma Farge in Geneva, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and David Brunnstrom in Washington; editing by Frances Kerry and Mark Heinrich)
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