By Abdul Adil
London, (The Muslim News): Between the afternoon of 3 April and 6 April, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 162 Palestinians were killed, and 236 Palestinians were injured by indiscriminate bombings by Israeli forces. This brings total number of Palestinians killed since 7 October 2023 to at least 33,137, including 14,500 children and 9,560 women and 75,815 injured in Gaza Strip according to MoH in Gaza, further 12,000 are reported missing, presumed dead under the rubble.
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Sunday will mark six months of the deadliest and most destructive war Gaza has ever seen. Here are some of the devastating impacts of the Israeli attacks and siege on the enclave:
More than 108,000 Palestinians – close to 4.5 percent of Gaza’s total population – have been killed or wounded. About 40 percent of these victims are children, according to Al Jazeera.
At least 60 percent of Gaza’s housing units have been destroyed, along with 392 education facilities, 123 ambulances and 184 mosques.
More than 1.7 million Palestinians – three-quarters of Gaza’s population – are displaced, with the majority crammed into the southernmost district of Rafah.
More than 1.1 million Palestinians face “catastrophic” food insecurity, according to the United Nations.
Famine-like conditions are worst in the north of the enclave, where at least 27 people, including 23 children, have died of starvation or dehydration.
Israeli artillery fire has struck homes near Gaza City, including in the Zeitoun, Sabra, Tal al-Hawa, and Sheikh Ijlin neighbourhoods, killing at least three people and injuring 10, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
At least four civilians were killed Friday and several others were wounded in Israeli airstrikes targeting different areas in the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources reported that two civilians were killed and others were injured in a raid launched by Israeli warplanes on the Nuseirat camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip.
Another artillery shelling was witnessed in the Al-Matahen area south of Deir Al-Balah.
Meanwhile, dozens of civilians sustained injuries as result of artillery shelling that targeted homes in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood and the outskirts of the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City.
In Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, Israeli fighter jets fired shells in the vicinity of Nasser and Al-Amal Hospitals, west of the city, resulting in the injury of several causalities.
Meantime, Israeli warplanes also opened heavy gunfire towards citizens’ homes in the Al-Qarara area, northeast of Khan Yunis.
In Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, civil and ambulance crews managed to recover the bodies of many people from under the rubble after an Israeli warplane targeted a house for the Abu Daraz and Nasr families in the El Geneina neighborhood, east of Rafah.
At least four people, including a paramedic, have been killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a rescue team in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, a health official says.
The emergency director at Kamal Adwan Hospital, Fares Afaneh, said the attack targeted a medical team rescuing injured people. He identified one of the victims as Hussein Matar.
“Our crew moved to rescue [people] wounded by Israeli shelling, and upon its arrival, it was subjected to another bombardment. Our crew was bombed while working,” Afaneh said.
The three main British opposition parties and some lawmakers in the governing party have urged the British government to consider suspending arms sales.
The Liberal Democrats called for arms exports to Israel to be suspended, while the Scottish National Party also backed that move and said parliament should be recalled from its Easter break to discuss the crisis.
The main opposition Labour Party, who polls suggest will form the next government later this year, adopted a nuanced approach, saying the government should suspend arms sales if lawyers have found Israel had broken international law.
In an interview with CNN, former CIA Director Leon Panetta urged Israel to take “some real and concrete steps” to “improve” its standard military operations in Gaza to avoid more civilian casualties, including aid workers.
“You have to be able to verify, to take time to make sure that the information you’re getting is accurate with regards to targets. And I have to tell you that in the past, at least in my experience, the Israelis usually fire and then ask questions.”
Panetta, who also served as defence secretary under US President Barack Obama, said if Israel does not take those steps, or “take initial steps and then go back to business as usual”, the US should consider imposing conditions on providing weapons to its closest ally in the Middle East.
Panetta said Israel has been “badly damaged in terms of reputation” for its military conduct against Palestinians in Gaza.
As of April 2024, according to data provided by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to Hamoked, an Israel-based human rights NGO, there are about 9,300 Palestinians in Israeli custody, including 3,661 administrative detainees (39 per cent) held without trial.
These figures do not include Palestinians from Gaza who were detained by the Israeli military since 7 October 2023. In a press statement on 4 April, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club Association reported that more than 200 Palestinian children are currently detained in Israeli prisons, including 23 children from Gaza who are detained in Megiddo Prison, noting that this is the only figure available regarding detained children from Gaza and actual figures may be higher.
According to Israeli government 1,139 Israelis were killed by Hamas on 7 October in southern Israel and 134 Israelis and foreign nationals are still detained by Hamas in Gaza.
Meanwhile Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli settlers burned four residential structures in the Ain al-Auja area, north of Jericho in the West Bank.
Mahmoud Ghawanmeh, a Palestinian resident of the community, told Wafa that the settlers sprayed racist slogans on several buildings before setting the fires.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded 561 incidents of Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians between October 7 and February 20.
According to Israeli government 1,139 Israelis were killed by Hamas on 7 October in southern Israel and 134 Israelis and foreign nationals are still detained by Hamas in Gaza.
[Photo: Palestinian children queue for food in Gaza on 6 April 2024. Photographer: Anadolu Agency]
