Gaza: 71 Palestinians killed, 102 injured by Israeli attacks last 24 hrs

By Abdul Adil

(Al Jazeera and Wafa): At least 71 Palestinians were killed and 102 others were injured in Israeli indiscriminate attacks that took place in the last 24 hours in Gaza Strip according to Health Ministry. The Palestinian death toll from Israel’s deadly offensive against the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, has now soared to 32,916, including 14,000 children and at least 75,494 others have been injured in the onslaught in the Gaza Strip.  further 12,000 are reported missing, presumed dead under the rubble. .

Six civilians, including a child and two women, were killed and others were injured in an Israeli bombardment of an apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip.

According to local sources, six Palestinians including two women and a child, were killed and others were injured in an Israeli air raid that targeted a residential apartment of the al-Moqayad family in al-Etihad Tower to the west of the Nuseirat camp, reported Wafa News Agency.

Israeli warplanes also launched airstrikes on the Zeitoun neighborhood southeast of Gaza City. The Israeli occupation forces also the homes of civilians in the Sheikh Ijlin neighborhood, southwest of the city, with gunfire.

Israeli forces bombed residential houses east of the city of Khan Yunis, in the south of the Strip. The Israeli occupation’s artillery also bombarded the Al-Amal neighborhood and its surroundings in the City.

Rescue and ambulance crews have also recovered the bodies of 10 people from under the rubble of the Za’rab family house in Rafah in the southern Strip, which was bombed by Israeli occupation planes last night.

Five Palestinian civilians were Tuesday killed and others were injured in an Israeli occupation aircraft bombing on Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, medical sources reported.

The sources said that three Palestinians were killed as a result of the Israeli bombing near the communications building in the center of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.

Two Palestinians were also killed and several others were injured when the Israeli forces bombed a house in Abu Al-Ajen area, east of the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, US-based aid group World Central Kitchen says the foreign aid workers killed in the “targeted Israeli strike” in Gaza were nationals from Australia, Poland and the UK, as well as a US-Canadian citizen. PM Benjamin Netanyahu admits Israeli army responsible for the strike.

International condemnation and calls for an urgent investigation after Israeli air attack kills seven aid workers – six foreign nationals and a Palestinian – in Gaza.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the deaths of World Central Kitchen staff brings the number of aid workers killed in Gaza since October 7 to 196.

This includes more than 175 members of UN staff.

“This is unconscionable,” Antonio Guterres said in a post on X.

The United States is “outraged” over the attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers – one of them a US citizen – in Gaza, White House spokesman John Kirby has said.

“We were outraged to learn of an [Israeli military] strike that killed a number of civilian humanitarian workers yesterday from the World Central Kitchen,” Kirby said.

But the White House said there is no evidence that Israel struck the aid workers deliberately, despite the fact that a full Israeli investigation is still pending.

The United Arab Emirates is pausing humanitarian aid efforts through a maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza pending further safety guarantees from Israel and a full investigation into the deaths of aid workers in Gaza, a UAE official has told Reuters.

The UAE has financed the aid shipments by sea to Gaza and WCK has organised them.

A UAE foreign ministry statement condemned the deaths of the aid workers and called for an “urgent, independent and transparent investigation.” The UAE said it holds Israel responsible.

The United Kingdom’s Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell has said in a statement that he “set out the government’s unequivocal condemnation of the appalling killing of 7 World Central Kitchen aid workers, including 3 British nationals” in a meeting with Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely.

“I reiterated the need for Israel to put in place an effective deconfliction mechanism immediately and urgently to scale up humanitarian access,” he said.

Israel has admitted responsibility for an attack in which seven aid workers of the World Central Kitchen, along with their Palestinian driver, were killed in central Gaza in a “targeted attack” by Israeli forces that has drawn global condemnation and forced the charity to suspend operations in the region

Alex Fort, a logistics coordinator at Doctors Without Borders, says the attack on the aid workers in Gaza is another example of how “international humanitarian law is not respected despite several deconfliction mechanisms in place to avoid such a tragedy”.

“Clearly, today it’s not possible to work in a safe way on the whole of the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian aid workers, health workers are directly targeted – and this is completely unacceptable,” he told Al Jazeera, speaking from the occupied East Jerusalem.

Fort said that this was not the first time such a “tragic” attack had happened since the start of the war, noting that MSF has faced such incidents several times that led “to the death of five of our colleagues”.

“This needs to stop and each incident needs serious investigation. For us, for example, all incidents we had, we requested serious investigation and we never get any feedback from the Israeli authorities,” Fort added.

“Aid workers are risking their life every day to provide assistance to the population and they are clearly part of the whole collective punishment that the civilian people of Gaza are facing every day.”

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.

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