A man brings home a box of humanitarian aid provided by the World Food Programme in the Bureij refugee camp within the central Gaza Strip on November 18, 2024. — AFP
Israeli military operations across the Gaza Strip resulted in the death of 18 Palestinians on Monday, with six fatalities occurring in attacks on tents housing displaced families, according to medics. Four individuals, including two children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in the coastal area of Al Mawasi, designated as a humanitarian zone, while two others were killed in temporary shelters in the southern city of Rafah and another in drone fire, health officials reported. In Beit Lahiya town in northern Gaza, medics confirmed that an Israeli missile struck a house, resulting in at least two deaths and several injuries. On Sunday, medics and residents reported that dozens of people were killed or wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a multi-floor residential building in the town.
The Israeli military, engaged in combat with Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza since October 2023, stated it conducted strikes on "terrorist targets" in Beit Lahiya. An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City led to five fatalities and ten injuries, according to medics. Later on Monday, an Israeli air strike killed four people in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, they added. There has been no Israeli comment on Monday's incidents.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives of Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on tents housing displaced families sat beside bodies wrapped in blankets and white shrouds to pay their final respects before transporting them to graves. "My brother wasn’t the only one; many others have been martyred in this brutal way — children torn to pieces, civilians shredded. They weren’t carrying weapons or even know 'the resistance', yet they were ripped apart into fragments," said Mohammed Aboul Hassan, who lost his brother in the attack. “We remain steadfast, patient, and resilient, and by the will of God, we will never falter. We will stay steadfast and patient," he told Reuters.
The Israeli army deployed tanks and soldiers into Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, early last month in what it described as a campaign to combat Hamas militants and prevent their regrouping. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, reported that the hospital was under siege by Israeli forces, with the World Health Organisation unable to deliver supplies of food, medicine, and surgical equipment. Cases of malnutrition among children were increasing, and the hospital was operating at a minimal level. "We receive daily distress calls, but we are unable to assist them due to the lack of ambulances, and the situation is catastrophic," he said. "Yesterday, I received a distress call from women and children trapped under the rubble, and due to my inability to help them, they are now among the martyrs (dead)."
Israel stated it had eliminated hundreds of militants in the three northern areas, which residents said were cut off from Gaza City, making it difficult and dangerous for them to escape. The armed wings of Hamas and militant group Islamic Jihad claimed they have killed many Israeli soldiers in anti-tank rocket and mortar fire attacks during the same period. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry reports that more than 43,800 people have been confirmed killed since the war began on October 7, 2023. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in attacks on communities in southern Israel that day, and hold dozens of some 250 hostages they took back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Source link: https://www.khaleejtimes.com
