By Abdul Adil
(The Muslim News): At least 46 Palestinians have been killed and several others injured by Israeli Defence Forces indiscriminate bombings in Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, including at least seven killed by Israeli air attacks that hit residential buildings in Gaza’s largest refugee camp in Jabalia, according to the Health Ministry in the enclave. Total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since 7 October has increased to 40,005 and 92,401 injured in Gaza.
A medic who responded to the attacks found that his family members had been killed in their building.
“I came to see the upper three floors toppled over my family. My father, mother and sister were killed; a second sister and uncle are still missing and we are still searching for them,” he told Al Jazeera Arabic’s Anas al-Sharif.
Al-Sharif reported that the attack had strewn body parts around the area and that rescuers had been unable to retrieve the body of a dead man dangling from the wreckage of the building.
“This is a residential building, as you can see. It was hit by missiles without any warning. Dozens were killed and injured. We hurriedly came over to see those appalling images,” one man told Al Jazeera. “Look at that body hanging from the wall. This defies humanity. May God punish all those responsible.”
A member of Gaza’s civil defence told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces hit residential buildings with a wave of missiles.
“As a result, large numbers of women and children were killed or injured. Many are still buried under the debris,” he said.
“Our teams are finding it difficult to recover the dead; as you can see some of the victims’ bodies are stuck and remain hanging on the walls.”
Israeli army on Friday destroyed several buildings in the Hamad City residential area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli warplanes conducted a series of bombings on Hamad City buildings, destroying many of them, local sources told Anadolu Agency, who also reported plumes of smoke rising from the area following the airstrikes.
Earlier on Friday, the Israeli army ordered residents of Hamad City and others in Khan Younis to evacuate in preparation for the military.
So far, there is no information on casualties from the airstrikes as people had already fled their apartments following the evacuation orders, which Hamas described in a statement as another attempt by Israel to genocide Palestinians by forcing them into “safe zones.”
Hamad City is named after Qatar’s former emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who laid the foundation stone during a 2012 visit to Gaza. The residential area, which included 2,500 apartments, was built with a $407 million Qatari grant.
A woman and three children were killed today in an Israeli airstrike targeting a tent for internally displaced persons in the Mawasi area west of Khan Yunis, in the southern war-torn Gaza Strip, according to Wafa News Agency.
Medical sources said that an Israeli air raid targeted a tent for displaced people near Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) headquarters west of Khan Yunis, resulting in the killing of a woman and three children.
Al-Mawasi was one of the areas designated by Israel as a safe zone for Palestinians.
According to the global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice, Oxfam, 1.7 million people, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population, are now estimated to be crammed into an area of 69 km2 – less than a fifth of the Strip.
In the early hours today, several Palestinian civilians were killed and others injured as a result of Israeli aerial and artillery strikes, along with gunfire from Israeli occupation forces targeting various areas across the Gaza Strip.
According to Wafa correspondent, medics recovered the bodies of five individuals from the families of Abdul Wahid and Al-Khour and treated eight injuries after Israeli forces shelled an apartment in the Al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City.
The victims, who were taken to the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, include Abu Bashar Abdul Wahid, his wife, their son Bashar, and their 13-year-old daughter.
Additionally, one person was killed and several others wounded in an Israeli drone strike near the entrance to the town of Al-Zawayda in central Gaza. The injured were transported to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Medics also retrieved the body of a young man, Hatem Hassouna Qweider, who was shot by a drone near Al-Dawa Mosque east of the Nuseirat refugee camp. He was taken to Al-Awda Hospital in the camp.
Furthermore, medics recovered another body following an Israeli strike on a house in the Al-Mufti area, north of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Simultaneously, Israeli military vehicles stationed at the Shuhada intersection opened fire on residential homes in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood southeast of Gaza City.
In Rafah, southern Gaza, Israeli artillery also fired several shells at western areas of the city, with no casualties being reported in the aftermath.
Israeli warplanes further targeted a house belonging to the Eid family in the Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza, and conducted two airstrikes east of Khan Younis in the south of the enclave. They also dropped flares over the western area of Gaza City and destroyed residential buildings in the town of Al-Qarara, near Khan Younis.
Israel has issued new evacuation orders for south Gaza, covering some areas it previously dedicated as a “humanitarian safe zone”. Al-Mawasi, also called a “safe zone” by Israel, was hit by airstrikes, killing two Palestinians.
An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken captive.
[Photo: Zakzuki family dismantle their tents and start preparing for evacuation following Israeli army’s call for evacuation of eastern areas of Deir Balah city in central Gaza Strip on 16 08, 2024. Photojournalist: Abed Rahim Khatib /AA]
