Many in Gaza ‘starving’

• Hamas official says Gaza not 'for sale' 
• Entry of aid 'minimum requirement' for talks: Hamas
• WHO says Gaza's last cancer hospital stops working

US President Donald Trump said yesterday "a lot of people are starving" in the besieged Gaza Strip, where rescuers reported more than 74 deaths in Israeli air strikes since midnight.

Trump's brief comments on Gaza came as he capped the first foreign tour of his second term that saw him visit several Gulf countries but excluded key ally Israel.

A two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in March, shortly after Israel reimposed a total blockade on Gaza that aid agencies say has sparked critical food shortages.

Yesterday, Gaza's civil defence agency said that 56 people had been killed in Israeli strikes since midnight, with medics reporting dozens more injured. When asked by AFP, the Israeli army made no comment on the strikes.

"We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving," Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

Israel cut off aid to Gaza on March 2, a tactic it has said is intended to force concessions from Hamas, which is still holding dozens of Israeli hostages it seized in October 2023.

Hamas insisted on Thursday night that the restoration of humanitarian assistance to the war-ravaged territory was "the minimum requirement" for talks.

It also warned that Gaza was not "for sale" hours after Trump again floated taking over the territory and turning it into "a freedom zone".

The World Health Organization said that the last hospital in Gaza providing cancer and cardiac care had stopped functioning after an Israeli attack.

The UN health agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that an attack on Tuesday left the European Hospital in Khan Yunis "severely damaged and inaccessible".

It is "no longer functional", he said, adding that a WHO team had evacuated emergency medical staff who had worked through the attacks.

"A strike hit nearby just before the mission," Tedros said, adding that the staff had been taken to the Nasser Medical Complex.

The WHO chief said "the hospital's closure has cut off vital services including neurosurgery, cardiac care, and cancer treatment -- all unavailable elsewhere in Gaza."

Israel's latest strikes sparked panic in northern Gaza.

"We were asleep when suddenly everything exploded around us," north Gaza resident Umm Mohammed al-Tatari, 57, told AFP.

"Everyone started running. We saw the destruction with our own eyes. There was blood everywhere, body parts and corpses. We didn't know who was dead and who was still alive."

Another resident, 33-year-old Ahmed Nasr, said the bombing continued through the night.

"We couldn't sleep or find any peace. There is no safety. We could die at any moment," he said.

For weeks, UN agencies have warned that supplies of everything from food and clean water to fuel and medicines are reaching new lows.

Israel says its aid stoppage and military pressure are meant to force Hamas to free the remaining hostages.