By Nadine Osman
London, (The Muslim News): The Palestinian Health Ministry reported on Friday that 61 more bodies were recovered in the Gaza Strip within the last 24 hours amid relentless Israeli military strikes. The ongoing offensive has now claimed the lives of at least 57,823 Palestinians since the war began in October 2023. The ministry also confirmed 231 new injuries during the same period, warning that “many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them.”
Throughout Friday, Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 39 Palestinians, including 10 civilians who had been waiting for humanitarian aid in the Al-Shakoush area, northwest of Rafah in southern Gaza. Witnesses and medical sources reported that Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd gathered for food and basic supplies, leaving more than 60 others wounded.
In western Khan Younis, Israeli drones targeted displaced families sheltering in tents in al-Mawasi, killing several people, including children. Ambulance crews from the Kuwait Specialised Field Hospital confirmed recovering four bodies and transporting many of the wounded to nearby facilities.
Later that day, five civilians were injured in a separate drone attack near the Al-Nazla roundabout in northern Gaza, where bombs were dropped on another group of civilians. Across central and southern Gaza, more fatalities followed. In Khan Younis, two people were killed near the Abu Hmaid Roundabout, while another three were struck on Al-Zuhur Street in the heart of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The air assault progressed northward, resulting in the deaths of three civilians following an Israeli strike that destroyed a house on Old Court Street in Jabalia. In the Zeitoun neighbourhood of southern Gaza City, drones targeted a gathering near Al-Hurriya School, resulting in five fatalities and dozens of injuries. East of Al-Shawa Square, along Salah al-Din Street, further strikes on civilians—many of them children—resulted in additional deaths and injuries.
The shelling in the nearby Al-Tuffah district continued, while another child, who had been wounded days earlier in a drone attack on his family’s tent in Khan Younis, succumbed to his injuries.
Elsewhere in Zeitoun, one civilian was killed in a drone strike near the Salah al-Din Mosque. In the Qizan Abu Rashwan area south of Khan Younis, Israeli forces killed a woman and arrested her husband. Another woman, injured earlier in a strike on al-Mawasi, also died of her wounds.
The violence intensified as night fell. Eight civilians lost their lives in Israeli airstrikes that targeted crowds in both central and southern Gaza. Among them, two people died near the Abu Humaid Roundabout in Khan Younis, three were struck on Al-Zohour Street in Nuseirat, and another three perished in Jabalia following a strike on a residential home.
Desecration of Palestinian graves
Beyond the rising death toll, reports of Israeli war crimes have triggered outrage. On Friday, the Gaza Endowments Ministry accused the Israeli military of desecrating graves and stealing the remains of Palestinians in Khan Younis. “In a scene that goes beyond all limits of humanity and strips away every moral, religious and international value, occupation forces at dawn on Thursday committed yet another horrific crime,” the ministry declared. The exhumations were characterised as “criminal and barbaric behaviour that no religion or law permits”. It was revealed that Israeli forces have so far destroyed 40 of Gaza’s 60 cemeteries under what is described as “false pretexts”.
Israeli brutality in West Bank
Meanwhile, violence escalated in the occupied West Bank. On Friday, 23-year-old Saif al-Din Kamel Abdul Karim Muslat was brutally beaten to death by illegal Israeli settlers in the town of Sinjil, near Ramallah. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, settlers attacked him with the protection of Israeli forces. In Sa’ir, north of Hebron, settlers erected a tent on Jabal al-Hadib hill—an initial step, locals say, toward building a new illegal outpost. Landowner Bassam Al-Qawasmeh explained that settlers have already fenced off hundreds of dunums and barred rightful owners from accessing the area.
“Everything happening is with the backing and incitement of the Israeli government,” he warned, adding, “They try to seize a small area first, then expand gradually to build a larger settlement and confiscate thousands of dunums.”
[Photo: Palestinians, forced to flee their homes due to Israeli attacks, struggle with harsh living conditions as they take refuge in schools affiliated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) at Nuseirat Refugee Camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on July 12, 2025. Photojournalist: Hassan Jedi/AA]
