Israeli military attacks across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 23 Palestinians in one of the single deadliest days since an October “ceasefire” began.
The medical sources reported that several children numbered among the casualties from Wednesday’s assaults, including an 11-year-old girl, reports Al Jazeera.
Israeli shelling on the Tuffah and Zeitoun neighbourhoods killed at least 14 people. A separate attack on tents sheltering displaced people in the Qizan Abu Rashwan area, south of Khan Younis, claimed another four lives.
Further Israeli air attacks on the al-Mawasi coastal tent camp killed two more, with the Palestine Red Crescent Society identifying one victim as first responder Hussein Hasan Hussein al-Sumairy.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum stated that Israeli forces had “squarely targeted” a number of residential homes in Gaza City without issuing prior warnings.
Abu Azzoum said these attacks, occurring despite a United States-brokered “ceasefire,” have left Palestinians in Gaza “without any sense of respite.”
He reported a surge in Israeli military activity, adding, “We can hear the … sound of Israeli drones hovering overhead, giving a sign of further potential attacks that might take place.”
Israeli military stated its armoured units and aircraft conducted the attacks in northern Gaza after a reserve officer sustained severe injuries from incoming fire.
It said the officer was evacuated to hospital following the incident, which occurred “during routine operational activity” near the “yellow line” demarcating areas under Israeli military control.
Since the “ceasefire” began nearly four months ago, Israel has now killed more than 520 Palestinians.
On Wednesday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that Israeli authorities handed over the bodies of 54 Palestinians and 66 boxes containing “human remains and organs” via the Red Cross. Medical teams in Gaza will now examine these remains before passing them on to families.
The overall Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks since 7 October, 2023, now stands at a minimum of 71,803.
Rights groups and a United Nations inquiry have labelled Israeli military actions in Gaza a genocide, a charge which is the subject of an ongoing case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
