The Palestinian authorities in Gaza reported this Saturday that at least 73 people have died in a bombing by Israeli warplanes on the town above Gaza, in the town of Beit Lahia, in the north of the Strip. The Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement that the attack has injured numerous civilians and “completely destroyed a residential complex.”
“The Israeli occupation army continues a clear war of ethnic cleansing, eradication and extermination, this time in Beit Lahia, in the northern region of the Gaza Strip, where it has committed a horrible massacre,” read the office’s statement.
Local media, cited by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, claim that there are still many people trapped under the rubble of buildings, and that rescue teams cannot reach them because shelling and artillery attacks by the Israeli army continue.
The Israel Defense Forces, the IDF, have responded that “the figures published by the Hamas-run media are exaggerated and do not align with the information held by the IDF, the precision munitions used and the accuracy of the attack against Hamas terrorist targets.” The IDF has called the area in question “an active war zone” and says it is “doing everything possible to prevent harm to civilians.”
The Palestinian Authority has also not been slow to react, denouncing the attack and blaming the international community for continued “passivity” in the face of deaths in Gaza, which, according to the latest official figures, have amounted to 42,603 people. “We hold the Israeli government and the international community fully and directly responsible for this ongoing massacre. “Once again we call for an international awakening to impose an immediate ceasefire,” adds the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in a press release collected by Europa Press.
“The international failure to stop the war of genocide and displacement against our people has become a cover used by the Israeli occupation government to carry out further crimes and extermination of our people, as is evident in the northern Strip” , specifies the AP.
Four engineers killed while working to guarantee drinking water in the Strip
On the other hand, the NGO Oxfam has denounced the death of four engineers at the hands of the Israeli army. The four workers were on their way to repair the pipes and infrastructure that make the distribution of drinking water possible in Khuzaa, east of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza. “Despite prior coordination with the Israeli authorities, their clearly identified vehicle was bombed,” denounces the organization, which identified the four engineers as workers of a partner organization, the Coastal Municipalities Water Company (CMWU).
“Their deaths aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where access to drinking water is already seriously compromised,” adds the NGO founded in the United Kingdom, which has described the attack on civilian infrastructure as “clear violations of international humanitarian law,” and has demanded an independent investigation.
Critical situation in the Yabalia field
In recent hours, Israeli attacks have also continued to reach the Jabalia refugee camp, the largest in the Strip, where thousands of people are sleeping without food or drink due to the Israeli siege, with dozens of bodies scattered across the streets. streets, as local sources have informed the EFE agency.
Sources from the Gaza Ministry of Health confirmed today that nearly 500 people have died since Israeli troops resumed their offensive in Jabalia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, more than 15 days ago. Likewise, they have indicated that the siege to which the main hospitals are under has left them practically without the capacity to care for more patients.
Early this Saturday, Israeli tanks surrounded and fired on the three main hospitals in the north, crucial for treating the wounded in this area: the Indonesian, Kamal Adwan and Al Awda. “The Israeli occupation is intensifying its attacks against the health system in the north of the Gaza Strip, by besieging and directly attacking the three hospitals in the north during the last hours,” criticized a spokesperson for the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The director of the hospital, located in the northern city of Beit Lahia, Marwan Sultan, indicated that Israeli artillery attacked the second and third floors, which “endangered the lives of patients and medical staff.” The UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said that on Friday some 20,000 people were forced to leave the camp due to the intensity of the attacks. The Israeli Army, for its part, assures that it has allowed the “safe” evacuation that hundreds of Palestinian civilians have already undertaken in the Jabalia area.
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