Palestinian authorities have said at least 33 people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, as Israel continues to carry out devastating attacks across the strip.
The Government Media Office in Gaza called Thursday's attack a “barbaric and atrocious massacre,” noting that most of the dead came from the al-Sheikh Ali family.
“He [Israeli] “The occupation army knew that this is a residential block with many apartment buildings housing dozens of civilians, children, women and displaced people,” the office said.
Doctors told Reuters news agency that Israeli fire hit a post office in Nuseirat housing displaced Palestinian families, as well as nearby houses.
Photographs from the scene show young children covered in dust and blood in the rubble of a collapsed building. Reuters reported that about 50 people were injured in the deadly attack, in addition to the 30 or so killed.
In Gaza, it is not uncommon for airstrikes to kill numerous members of the same family, as Israel's war continues into its second year.
By October 2024, the first anniversary of the war, Israeli strikes had wiped out at least 902 entire families in the Strip, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.
Throughout the war, facilities and buildings housing displaced families have been attacked by Israeli forces, who often claim, with little evidence, that they are being used as operations centers for the Palestinian armed group Hamas. Israeli authorities have not yet commented on Thursday's attack in Nuseirat.
Health facilities, journalists and aid workers have also reported coming under persistent attack by Israeli forces since fighting began in October 2023, when Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,100 people, the most of them civilians.
Since then, Israeli strikes have killed more than 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children.
On Thursday, the monitoring group Airwars, which assesses civilian damage caused by airstrikes, released a report stating that Israel's campaign in Gaza was “by far the most intense, destructive and deadly conflict for civilians.” civil” that has ever been recorded.
The report found that, during the first month of the war, the number of civilians killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza was almost four times higher than the death toll from “any conflict that Airwars has documented since its establishment in 2014,” in a comparable period. period of time.
Experts and human rights groups also say the death toll in Gaza is likely to be far below expected, as thousands more are buried under mountains of rubble and the strip's health services struggle to maintain operations.
Thursday's attack on Nuseirat hit a largely residential area in one of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, established in 1948 following the forced expulsion of Palestinians from nearby areas, often called Nakba or “catastrophe.”
It was one of several attacks in Gaza throughout the day. In another refugee camp, Jabalia, Israeli forces shot Saeed Jouda, a prominent doctor working at Kamal Adwan Hospital, while he was on his way to treat patients. He died as a result.
An estimated 1,057 health care workers have died since the start of the war. The Government Media Office in Gaza also highlighted tensions over the enclave's medical system in comments on Thursday.
“This latest crime coincides with the Israeli occupation's plan to tear down the health system in the Gaza Strip, putting massive pressure on medical teams,” the press office said.
“Added to this are the continuous attacks on hospitals and medical centers, leaving them out of service. Furthermore, the occupation prevents the entry of medicines and medical supplies and equipment as part of the crime of genocide.”
