At least 33 people have been killed in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the Palestinian Authority said, as Israel continues its devastating offensive across the Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s government media office called Thursday’s attack a “barbaric and heinous massacre,” noting that most of those killed were from the al-Sheikh Ali family.
“The (Israeli) occupation forces knew that this was a residential area with many apartment blocks where dozens of civilians, children, women and displaced persons lived,” the office said. .
Medics told Reuters that a fire set by the Israeli army destroyed a post office and a nearby house in Nuseyrat, where displaced Palestinian families were being evacuated.
Photos from the scene show young children covered in dust and blood amid the rubble of collapsed buildings. Reuters reported that the deadly attack left more than 30 people dead and about 50 others injured.
As Israel’s war enters its second year, it is not uncommon for airstrikes to kill large numbers of the same families in Gaza.
As of October 2024, the one-year anniversary of the war, at least 902 households in the Gaza Strip have been completely destroyed by Israeli airstrikes, according to the Gaza government media office.
During the war, facilities and buildings sheltering displaced families have been attacked by the Israeli military, which often claims, although there is little evidence, that they are used as operational centers for the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israeli authorities have not yet commented on Thursday’s attack in Nuseyrat.
Medical facilities, journalists, and humanitarian workers have also reported being persistently targeted by Israeli forces since fighting began in October 2023. Hamas has launched a deadly attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,100 people, most of them civilians.
Since then, Israeli attacks have killed more than 44,800 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, more than half of them women and children.
Air Wars, a monitoring group that assesses civilian casualties from airstrikes, released a report on Thursday that called Israel’s Gaza campaign “the most violent, destructive and deadliest conflict for civilians ever recorded.” .
The report says that in the first month of the war, the number of civilians killed by Israeli military attacks in Gaza was almost 4% more than the death toll of “all conflicts recorded by Air Wars since its creation in 2014.” It was revealed that it was twice as much. period.
Experts and rights groups also say the death toll in the Gaza Strip is probably significantly underestimated, with thousands more buried under piles of rubble and the Gaza Strip’s health services struggling to maintain operations. states.
Thursday’s attack on Nuseyrat, one of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, hit a largely residential area. The refugee camp was established in 1948 following the forced expulsion of Palestinians from neighboring areas, often referred to as the Nakba or “catastrophe.”
This was one of several strikes in Gaza throughout the day. In another refugee camp, Jabalia, Israeli forces opened fire on Saeed Judah, a top doctor at Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was on his way to treat patients. As a result, he died.
An estimated 1,057 medical workers have been killed since the start of the war. The Gaza government media office also emphasized the strain on the enclave’s medical system in a statement Thursday.
“This latest crime is consistent with the Israeli occupation’s plan to collapse the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip, putting enormous pressure on medical teams,” the news agency said.
“Coupled with continued attacks on hospitals and medical centers, services have been suspended. Furthermore, this occupation is preventing the entry of medicines, medical supplies, and medical equipment as part of the crime of genocide.”
