The Gazan government reports attacks against more than 190 shelters for displaced people since a year ago
At least 25 people have been killed and 120 injured in two bombings by the Israeli Army against a school that housed displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp and against tents that were set up in the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital (Deir al-Balah), in the center of the Gaza Strip, as part of the offensive unleashed after the attacks carried out on October 7, 2023 by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and other Palestinian factions.
Gazan authorities have indicated that an Israeli attack on the Mufti school in the Nuseirat camp has killed 22 people, including 15 children and women, and injured 80 people. The Gaza government media office has assured that the Israeli army “knew” that in the school “there were thousands of children and women displaced from their homes and whose neighborhoods were bombed.” “They attacked the school despite the fact that it was in an area that the occupation did not classify as a combat zone,” it criticized.
According to a statement published on its Telegram channel, “with this massacre the number of shelters and displaced people bombed rises to 191.” “This new crime adds to the difficult health situation in the central province, where more than a million people currently live,” he said, adding that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital “cannot provide adequate medical services to all these huge numbers of displaced people” due to “extensive overcrowding and numerous wounded people arriving at all hours.”
For its part, Hamas has declared that “the horrible massacre committed” by Israel “is an insistence on its war of extermination,” which “would not have dared to continue” if it were not for “the cover provided by the US Administration and international silence.”
“We call on the international community and the United Nations to assume their legal and moral responsibilities in the face of these repeated crimes, and to take immediate measures to stop the ongoing aggression, and to hold the leaders of this terrorist entity accountable for their crimes and violations against our Palestinian people and the peoples of the region,” it urged, according to the Palestinian daily ‘Filastin’, linked to Hamas.
ATTACK INSIDE AL-AQSA HOSPITAL
Shortly afterwards, the Gazan Ministry of Health confirmed at least four dead and 40 wounded in a bombing against tents that were set up inside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, located in Deir al-Balah, to accommodate displaced people due to Israel’s military offensive in the enclave.
Thus, it has denounced that the attack “has caused a large fire in the tents for the displaced and in the hospital facilities, which has caused four martyrs and more than 40 wounded, including serious cases.” “Most of them are displaced children and women who were in the hospital,” it said.
“We reiterate our call to international institutions and the United Nations, as well as the parties involved, to intervene quickly and protect hospitals and health personnel from the brutality and crimes by the occupation,” it said through a message on its Telegram account.
In this regard, the press office of the Gazan authorities has denounced that Israel has bombed this site for the seventh time (in January, March, July, August and twice in September) “in the framework of the crime of genocide, ethnic cleansing and holocaust launched by the Israeli Army against civilians and displaced persons.”
“We hold the Israeli occupation and the American Administration fully responsible for this genocide and the systematic crimes against civilians and displaced persons in the Gaza Strip. We call on the international community and organizations to pressure the occupation to stop this genocide,” reads a statement.
The spokesman in Arabic for the Israeli Army, Avichai Adraee, has indicated that fighter planes have attacked “terrorists who were operating in a command and control complex that was established in an area that was formerly the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.” “Members of Hamas used the hospital complex to plan and carry out terrorist operations,” he said.
According to him, “a number of measures were taken before the attack to reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties, including the use of precision munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.” He also indicated that Hamas “systematically violates international law, brutally exploiting civilian institutions and populations as human shields.”
Israel’s offensive against Gaza was launched after the aforementioned attacks on October 7, 2023, which left some 1,200 dead and nearly 250 kidnapped, according to Israeli authorities. Since then, more than 42,200 Palestinians have died, as indicated by the Gazan authorities, in addition to more than 750 Palestinians killed at the hands of Israeli security forces and in attacks perpetrated by settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since that date.
