Israel commits new massacres in Gaza killing 82 civilians on Tuesday

Ahram Online , Tuesday 14 May 2024

New massacres in Gaza have killed several Palestinians and injured others, including children, on Tuesday after the Israeli warplanes bombed a house in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, WAFA news agency said.

Nuseirat
Palestinian civil defence check the body of a victim following an Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip. AFP

 

Medical sources said the occupation forces committed seven massacres against families in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours, killing 82 Palestinians and injuring 234 others.

They said 14 citizens, including children, were killed, and others were injured after the Israeli forces bombed a three-story house owned by the Karaja family, south of Nuseirat camp in the centre of the strip.

The Israeli warplanes launched a raid on a house in Bakr land, west of Gaza City, as the occupation artillery bombed the city of Beit Lahia, northwest of the strip, while it continued to violently bomb Jabalia camp in the north.

Israeli forces pushed into an area of the sprawling refugee camp built for displaced Palestinians 75 years ago.

Israeli jets bombed homes on Al-Ternis Street in the Jabalia camp, and tank shells landed in the centre of the camp.

Health officials said they had recovered 20 bodies from overnight airstrikes.

Residents fled along rubble-strewn streets carrying bags of belongings.

“We don’t know where to go. We have been displaced from one place to the next ... We are running in the streets. I saw it with my own eyes. I saw the tank and the bulldozer. It is on that street,” said one woman, who did not give her name.

In the south, Israel stepped up aerial and ground bombardments on the eastern areas of Rafah, killing people in an airstrike on a house in the Brazil neighbourhood.

Residents said Israeli air and ground bombardments were intensifying and tanks had cut off the main north-south Salah Al-Din road, dividing east of the city from the central area.

“The tanks cut the Salah Al-Din road, east of the city; the forces are now in the southeast side, building up near the built-up area. The situation is dreadful and the sounds of explosions never stopped,” said Bassam, 57, from the Shaboura neighbourhood in Rafah.

“People continue to leave Rafah ... no place looks safe now, and people do not want to escape at the last minute,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

Roads heading north and west are choked with cars, trucks, trolleys, and pony carts laden with people and their possessions.

UNRWA, the main United Nations aid agency in Gaza, estimates some 450,000 people have fled Rafah since being forced to evacuate by the Israeli army before their first attacks around and in the city a week ago.

"People face constant exhaustion, hunger, and fear. Nowhere is safe," the agency said on X.

“The infrastructure [in Khan Younis] is completely destroyed. There are no water, electricity nor sewage services,” the UN agency added.

"Displaced people fleeing Rafah are moving back to destroyed areas that are in no way fit for them to live in. Nowhere is safe in Gaza."

 

The Biden administration has assessed that Israel has amassed enough troops on the edge of the city of Rafah in Gaza to move forward with a full-scale incursion in the coming days, CNN reported.

An unnamed official quoted by CNN said that Israel has “not come anywhere close” to making adequate preparations for evacuating Rafah’s population before any invasion, such as “building infrastructure related to food, hygiene, and shelter.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and partners said they are opening a field hospital in southern Gaza to try to meet what they described as an “overwhelming” demand for health services since Israel’s military operation on Rafah began last week.

“People in Gaza are struggling to access the medical care they urgently need due, in part, to the overwhelming demands for health services and the reduced number of functioning health facilities,” the ICRC said.

The death toll of the Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza since 7 October has risen to 35,173; more than 79,061 were injured in an infinite toll, as thousands of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads as ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them.

The Israeli invasion of Rafah, which borders Egypt, has closed a main crossing point for aid, which humanitarian groups say is worsening an already dire situation.

No food has entered the two main border crossings in southern Gaza for the past week.

Some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza face catastrophic levels of hunger and are on the brink of starvation, and a “full-blown famine” is taking place in the north, according to the UN.

Gaza’s health authority appealed for international pressure to reopen access via the southern border to allow entry of aid, medical supplies, and fuel to power generators and ambulances.

“The wounded and sick suffer a slow death because there is no treatment and supplies, and they cannot travel,” it said.

Short link: