By Abdul Adil

London, (The Muslim News): More than 81 Palestinians have been killed and 93 wounded by indiscriminate bombing by Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. This brings the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli bombings since October 7 to 32,414, including at least 13,000 children and 74,787 wounded in Gaza Strip according to the Health Ministry. A further 12,000 are reported missing, presumed dead under the rubble.

The Israeli military has bombed a house in Rafah, killing at least 18 people, including nine children, reports Al Jazeera.

The Israeli military has forced patients and medical teams from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to evacuate al-Amal Hospital in Deir el-Balah, which is now out of service.

The PRCS said in a post on X that the Israeli army evacuated the hospital’s staff and patients and closed off its entrances with barriers.

It added that the international community “failed to provide the necessary protection” for the facility.

Twelve people are confirmed to have drowned when they swam into the Mediterranean Sea to get aid parcels airdropped near Gaza’s northern coast, said the Gaza government’s media office.

Six more were killed in “stampedes” that broke out when aid was dropped elsewhere in northern Gaza, where extreme hunger is pervasive, it added.

The Gaza media office said such aid airdrops were “abusive” and “futile” in light of the famine-like conditions in northern Gaza, and called for the opening of land crossings which can bring in far more aid more safely and efficiently.

Two civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted east of the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, reports Wafa News Agency.

Local sources told Wafa that Israeli warplanes targeted a group of civilians east of Al-Maghazi camp, resulting in the killing of two and causing several causalities.

Meanwhile, 30 Palestinians were killed following an Israeli bombing of a house owned by Abu Hasira family in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, west of Gaza City, medical sources confirmed on Tuesday.

A number of Palestinians were injured as a result of Israeli artillery shelling on Al-Nasr neighborhood, northeast of Rafah.

The Israeli military vehicles also broke into the vicinity of Asdaa Prison, Street 5, and the Western Line in Khan Yunis, amid artillery shelling and gunfire.

Local sources told Wafa that the Israeli forces bombed the tents of the displaced in Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, killing a number of citizens and wounding others.

Al-Mawasi area is located on the coastal strip of the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of the Gaza Strip, about 28 kilometers from Gaza City.

The area is famous for its agricultural lands and fresh groundwater, but due to the Israeli bombings, it has been transformed into barren lands and a spot for displacement in the Strip.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese has issued a report saying there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Presenting the findings in Geneva, Albanese has said that 25,000 tonnes of explosives – equivalent to two nuclear bombs – have been used to level entire neighbourhoods in Gaza, “erasing or severely damaging almost all civilian infrastructure and agricultural land, most of homes, healthcare facilities, telecommunications infrastructure, every university, most education facilities and innumerable cultural heritage sites”.

More than 70 percent of the recorded deaths have been women and children and Israel has failed to prove that the remaining 30 percent – adult males – were active Hamas fighters, she said.

Israel’s heightened blockade of Gaza is also resulting in deaths by starvation, including that of 10 children daily.

Albanese noted that Israeli forces have wounded more than 70,000 Palestinians and detained thousands of Palestinian men and boys, subjecting them to torture and mistreatment.

Albanese also said Israel has destroyed or severely damaged most of Gaza’s life-sustaining infrastructure, including hospitals and agricultural land.

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: As the world looks on, Palestinian Fadi Zant, 9, experiencing malnutrition due to Israeli preventing aid to Gaza, receives treatment after evacuated from northern Gaza Strip to IMC field hospital in Rafah, Gaza 24 03 2024. Photojournalist: Ali Jadallah/ AA]