DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 21-month Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday. Israeli strikes overnight killed more than two dozen people, mostly women and children, according to health officials.

Two Israeli rights groups said Israel was carrying out "coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza strip."

The United Nations food aid agency needs quick approvals by Israel for its trucks to move into Gaza if it is to take advantage of Israel's planned humanitarian pauses in fighting, a senior World Food Programme official said on Sunday.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza passed 60,000 on Tuesday. The world's leading authority on food crises said the “ worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out” in the territory of over 2 million people as starvation deaths rise.