Gaza: On June 12, 2025, Israeli forces launched a series of attacks across the besieged enclave, killing at least fifty‑two Palestinians according to medical officials.
The dead include twenty‑six people who were queueing for food and basic supplies at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution point near the Netzarim checkpoint when Israeli drones dropped several small‑diameter bombs; al‑Awda Hospital later received ten bodies and treated some two hundred wounded while al‑Shifa Hospital confirmed six additional fatalities from blasts near the same checkpoint and the as‑Sudaniya coastal road.
Separate shelling of the Bir an‑Naaja area west of Jabalia camp killed two more civilians. Witnesses described the strikes as sudden, low‑altitude drone passes followed by clustered explosions that scattered food parcels and tore through waiting families, an account consistent with videos verified by Gaza’s civil‑defence agency.
Additional casualties were reported as Israeli fire hit other parts of Gaza City and central districts throughout the morning, bringing the enclave’s death toll since the war began well beyond fifty‑five thousand, local health authorities say.
Simultaneously, Gaza slipped into a near‑total communications blackout after what Hamas called a deliberate Israeli cut to the last fibre‑optic cable, a move the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said severed its contact with field teams and crippled emergency coordination. Deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq warned that “lifelines to emergency services and humanitarian information have all been cut,” leaving hospitals to rely on generators and runners for basic triage data.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation—an aid scheme backed by Washington and Tel Aviv—again drew sharp criticism after the strike. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini blasted the model as a “dystopian Hunger Games” that forces starving civilians to gather in exposed open ground instead of receiving aid through established UN corridors. Gaza’s civil‑defence agency says dozens have died at GHF sites since the operation began in late May, underscoring what humanitarian officials call a pattern of lethal crowd strikes.
Against this backdrop the 193‑member UN General Assembly passed, by a two‑thirds majority, a Spanish‑drafted resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and accountability for violations of international humanitarian law. Germany, Austria and Ukraine—previously abstaining—voted in favour, surprising diplomats and adding weight to what Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour hailed as “the heart of the resolution.” Though non‑binding, the vote piles diplomatic pressure on Israel only a week after a similar Security Council measure was vetoed by the United States.
Hamas condemned both the aid‑queue strike and the communications blackout as “a new aggressive step in Israel’s war of extermination,” urging the international community to enforce civilian protections. With Israel’s leadership rejecting ceasefire calls and Gaza now largely cut off from the outside world, UN officials warn that hunger, disease and unrestrained bombardment could accelerate a humanitarian collapse unless the resolution’s demands are swiftly implemented.
