TOAt least 13 people were killed during last night’s Israeli shelling of the Nuseirat refugee camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Wafa agency.
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“Ambulance teams recovered the bodies of eight dead and several injured as a result of the attack on the Al Rai family home” in Nuseirat, the agency said.
The rescuers, the source adds, also “found five bodies among the ruins after a bombardment against several commercial premises of the Al Madhoun family,” in the Nuseirat camp.
Wafa denounces that The military carried out raids against agricultural territories both north of Nuseirat and in the Tal al Hawa and Zeitun neighborhoods of Gaza Citynorth of the Palestinian territory.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa also reports bombings against the Bureij refugee camp, in the center of the Strip, without specifying the number of victims.
The Israeli Army maintains its operations against the city of Rafah, at the southern end of the Strip and on the border with Egypt, despite having announced on Sunday a “tactical pause” of its activities between the Kerem Shalom pass and the Khan Younis European Hospital (south), around the Salah al Din road, to allow the entry of humanitarian aid.
According to Wafa, the military carried out raids in several areas of the city, amidst gunfire and artillery bombardment, especially in the western areas of this devastated enclave.
Only 65,000 people remain in Rafah, where 1.4 million evacuees were crowded, after fleeing the Israeli advance, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced on Monday.
This Monday, The Israeli armed forces claimed to have eliminated more than 500 fighters from the Islamist group Hamas in this southern city, where a military operation widely criticized by the international community began in early May.
As a result of the attacks, two of the four Hamas battalions in the town have been practically dismantled, while the remaining two are “at low operational levels,” according to the armed forces.
Since the war began, 37,347 people have been killed and another 85,372 injured by Israeli attacks, with around 70% of the victims being women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
Furthermore, around 10,000 bodies still trapped under rubble without ambulances or rescue teams being able to access them, defends the ministry.
They denounce unprecedented environmental crisis
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) also warned this Tuesday that the war in the Gaza Strip is causing an “unprecedented” environmental crisis due to contamination of soil, water and air and “irreversible damage” to natural ecosystems.
Not only are Gazans dealing with untold suffering from the ongoing war, but significant and growing environmental damage in Gaza could lock its people into a long and painful recovery.
“Not only are the people of Gaza dealing with untold suffering from the ongoing war, but the significant and growing environmental damage in Gaza could lock its people into a long and painful recovery,” Inger Andersen, director executive of UNEP, based in Nairobi.
“All of this harms the health of the population, the food health and the resilience of Gaza,” added Andersen, whose agency published a preliminary report on Tuesday in response to a request made by the Palestinian authorities last December.
That evaluation concluded that The war has not only “reversed” the small advances that had been achieved – such as the development of desalination facilities, wastewater treatment or the growth of solar energy – but has also generated 39 million tons of debris.
This debris poses “a risk to human health and the environment,” as it contains unexploded explosive devices, asbestos or industrial and medical waste, as well as human remains that must be treated “sensitively and appropriately.”
According to the report, None of the five wastewater treatment plants in Gaza are still in operation, Therefore, beaches, soil or rivers are being contaminated with a large amount of pathogens, microplastics and dangerous chemicals.
Soil and water have also been contaminated by heavy metals and explosive chemicals from munitions deployed throughout Gaza, a situation exacerbated by the destruction of solar panels, which can release, for example, lead.
In addition, five of the six plants that managed solid waste in the Strip were damaged. and, as of November 2023, 1,200 tons of garbage were accumulating daily near the camps and shelters where the Gazan population stays.
UNEP also warned about the risks that the tunnels dug by the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas could present. and its destruction by Israel.
“Depending on the construction standards of the tunnels and the extent to which water is being pumped into them, the preliminary assessment warns of long-term risks to human health from contamination of groundwater and to buildings constructed on potentially unstable ground surfaces”the agency stressed.
Due to the security situation and access restrictions, UNEP had to prepare its preliminary report with remote monitoring tools – such as satellite images -, data from Palestinian technical entities, consultations with multilateral partners and documents on the work on the ground of the UN, in addition to scientific literature.
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