Death toll from Gaza war surpasses 65,000; 435 died of hunger as UN probe alleges genocide

CAIRO – 18 September 2025: Israeli forces have killed over 65,000 people in Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023, the enclave’s health ministry reported, as a UN report concluded this week that Israel has committed a genocide against residents.

The United Nations’ commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel stated in its report that Israeli forces and authorities carried out four of the five acts defined under the Genocide Convention.

These include committing mass killings, causing serious harm, and deliberately creating unlivable conditions.

The commission also slammed statements made by Israeli officials as a “direct evidence of genocidal intent.”

Since 7 October 2023, Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives have killed 65,141 people and injured 165,925 people.

Israeli forces have also continued attacks near humanitarian aid distribution centers operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Of the total fatalities, 2,513 people have been killed and 18,414 more have been injured while seeking humanitarian aid.

The UN report comes less than a month after another UN-backed food security analysis has officially confirmed that famine is underway in Gaza City, marking the first such declaration since the onset of the Israeli war.

The analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found that over 500,000 people are currently trapped in famine conditions, and projected that by the end of September, famine could spread across the entire enclave.

It further warned that by June 2026, more than 100,000 children under the age of five will be at risk of death due to acute malnutrition.

Meanwhile, Israel has intensified its military operations in Gaza, launching a ground invasion of the famine-stricken Gaza City, home to nearly half of the enclave’s 2.2 million residents, despite international condemnation.

Israeli forces have flattened buildings, killed scores of Palestinians, and ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate southward to a so-called "safe zone" in Al-Mawasi.

On Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes hit Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi Specialized Children's Hospital in Gaza City.

In an effort to pressure civilians to leave, the Israeli army announced in late August that it would end tactical pauses in Gaza City, halting brief ceasefires that had previously allowed limited aid deliveries to the northern city.

According to the ministry’s update, starvation and acute malnutrition have claimed the lives of four more people, including a child, over the past 24 hours, raising the total to 435 people, 147 of them children.