GAZA/UNITED NATIONS/JERUSALEM - At least 65 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on six residential buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp and the nearby town of Jabalia in northern Gaza early on Wednesday, Palestinian civil defense and medical officials said.

The strikes hit the targets while residents were asleep, according to Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Defense. "Most of the victims are women and children," he told Xinhua, adding that rescue efforts were hindered by a shortage of equipment and resources. "We are witnessing scenes of destruction and casualties on a daily basis," he said.

A medical source at the Indonesian Hospital, one of the few functioning facilities in the north, said emergency surgeries and amputations were being performed in the corridors. The hospital, the source said, was overwhelmed and struggling to cope with the influx of casualties.

Eyewitnesses said the targeted homes belonged to local families and were sheltering displaced people who had fled fighting elsewhere in the enclave.

READ MORE: Gaza health authority: 6 killed in Israeli attack on southern Gaza hospital

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the Jabalia strikes.

Late on Tuesday, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued an evacuation warning for residents in Jabalia town, Jabalia camp, and surrounding areas. "This is a final advance warning before the attack," he said in a post on social media.

The strikes in Jabalia came hours after an Israeli air raid near the European Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, killed at least 28 people, including patients, caregivers, and people seeking shelter nearby, according to the Gaza-based health authorities.

The Israeli army said the Khan Younis strike targeted Mohammed Sinwar, a senior commander in the military wing of Hamas and the brother of the group's former leader, Yahya Sinwar. Hamas has not commented on the allegation.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza, launched after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, has so far killed 52,928 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities said on Wednesday.

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Humanitarian conditions in the territory continue to deteriorate, with large-scale destruction, limited access to aid, and worsening shortages of food, water, and medical supplies. Aid agencies have warned that civilians, particularly women and children, are bearing the brunt of the ongoing conflict.  

UN urges Israel to lift aid blockade

The United Nations Security Council has called on Israel to lift its blockade on Gaza, where food supplies are dwindling and the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.

Addressing an emergency meeting held on Tuesday on Gaza's worsening humanitarian crisis, Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is deteriorating rapidly amid an Israeli blockade that has prevented the entry of food, medicine, water and shelter materials for more than 10 weeks.

"We have life-saving supplies ready, now, at the borders ... We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians, and not to Hamas. But Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians," he told the security council.

According to Fletcher, some 70 percent of Gaza's territory is either under displacement orders or within Israeli-militarized zones, leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in shrinking areas without basic necessities.

"Every single one of the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face the risk of famine. One in five face starvation," he said, quoting a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO).

Israel blocked the entry of goods and supplies into Gaza on March 2, following the end of the first phase of a January ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Concerns over Gaza's humanitarian crisis have deepened following Israel's recent declaration that it plans to intensify its ongoing military campaign.

Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the UN, noted that nearly half a million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic levels of hunger. He urged Israel to uphold international humanitarian law and lift the blockade to allow unhindered access to food, medicine and other critical supplies.

Gaza has become the most dangerous place for humanitarian workers, with more than 400 humanitarian workers killed in the current conflict, Fu said.

READ MORE: Freed Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander returns to Israel from Gaza

"China urges Israel to immediately cease its military attacks on Gaza," Fu said, noting that military action cannot resolve the conflict and only prolongs the humanitarian crisis.

While welcoming the recent release of an American hostage, Fu called on the United States to play a fair and constructive role in bringing about a ceasefire.

Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander returned to Israel on Monday evening after spending 19 months in captivity in Gaza under Hamas, according to a statement from Israel's Defense Ministry.

Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer for the State of Palestine to the UN, said "Israel has been openly and brazenly blocking humanitarian aid for over two months now. This is engineered starvation".

He warned that the Israeli plan for distributing humanitarian aid is "just a continuation of the weaponization of aid" and stressed that it is "rejected by all UN agencies and all humanitarian organizations".

Earlier this month, the UN said that Israeli authorities were seeking to implement a new system for aid delivery in Gaza, one that would route humanitarian supplies through military-run distribution centers instead of allowing UN agencies and humanitarian groups to manage the process independently.

"This is a man-made catastrophe. It comes as a result of the inaction that has paralyzed multilateralism," said Toufik Koudri, deputy permanent representative of Algeria to the UN. "There is food. There is the ability to treat. What we are lacking is will and the capacity to impose the law and to enforce the law."

Barbara Woodward, UK permanent representative to the UN, said the UK calls on Israel to "urgently engage with the UN to ensure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles". "International law requires Israel to allow the rapid and unimpeded provision of humanitarian aid to all civilians," she said.

Speaking on behalf of the UK, Denmark, France, Greece, and Slovenia, Woodward said "blocking aid as a pressure lever is unacceptable".

"We strongly oppose both these actions, which will add to Palestinian suffering while doing nothing to serve the long-term interests of peace and security in the region," she said in a media stakeout at the UN after the security council meeting.

She said they were "deeply concerned at proposals to establish a new mechanism for the delivery of aid, which the UN has said would not meet humanitarian purposes or principles".

"Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool or a military tactic," Woodward noted.  

Evacuation warning

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a warning on Wednesday evening, urging the immediate evacuation of the Al-Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City, ahead of an Israeli strike.

The places under the warning include schools and hospital compounds, according to a map attached to the warning published by IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee on social media platform X.

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Adraee claimed that Hamas is exploiting these civilian areas for "terrorist activities", adding that the IDF will attack the areas with great force.

The evacuation order comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that the Israeli military will enter Gaza "with full force" in the coming days to press forward with efforts to defeat Hamas.