At least 75 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-led raids across Gaza, and rescuers are frantically searching for bodies under the rubble following the bombing of a residential building in Gaza City, which the civil defense described as a “full-fledged massacre.”
Prior to Saturday’s attack on the home in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, which left at least 16 people dead, including women and children, the military did not give a “warn, no alert,” according to a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense, Mahmoud Basel, who spoke to Al Jazeera.
According to Basel, who added that about 85 people were thought to be trapped beneath the rubble, “this is truly a full-fledged massacre… a building full of civilians.”
A displaced Palestinian at the site, Hamed Keheel, recalled that the attack had occurred on the second day of the Eid al-Adha festival, and that “we woke up to the strikes, destruction, yelling, rocks hitting us.”
He claimed that this is his occupation. We wake up to carry women’s and children’s bodies from under rubble, not to cheer our children and dress them up.
Hassan Alkhor, a resident from the Abu Sharia family, informed Al Jazeera that the building is their home. He prayed, “May God hold the Israeli forces and [Prime Minister] Netanyahu accountable.”
According to a report in the Times of Israel on Saturday, the Israeli military claimed to have killed Asaad Abu Sharia, the Mujahideen Brigades leader, who it claimed had participated in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Hamas confirmed the killing in a statement posted on Telegram, claiming Ahmed Abu Sharia’s brother had also been killed in the attack, which it claimed was “part of a series of brutal massacres against civilians.”
“A few cups of rice for our hungry kids.”
In addition to the latest deadly incident involving Israeli operations that have resulted in the deaths of 118 people and others have been missing in less than two weeks, Israeli forces also killed at least eight Palestinians waiting nearby a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)-run aid distribution facility in southern Gaza on Saturday.
Samir Abu Hadid, a resident of Gaza, reported to the AFP news agency that hundreds of people had gathered near the aid facility’s al-Alam roundabout.
The Israeli [forces] opened fire from armored vehicles stationed nearby, firing into the air and then at civilians, according to Abu Hadid.
After visiting the aid station to get “a handful of rice for our starving children,” a woman claimed her husband had been killed in the attack.
I begged him not to leave because he claimed he felt like he was on the verge of death. She said, “He insisted on finding anything to feed our children.”
In late May, the GHF, a shady United States-backed private organization that Israel has established to distribute aid under the protection of its troops and security contractors, started operating.
Critics claim that the organization uses weapons to aid in achieving its stated goals of ethnic cleansing large swathes of Gaza and gaining control over the entire enclave, in violation of humanitarian principles of neutrality.
Hamas “direct threats” against its operations, GHF claimed on Saturday, making it impossible to distribute any humanitarian aid. According to a statement, “These threats made it impossible to proceed today without risking innocent lives.” Hasso informed Reuters news agency that it had no knowledge of these “alleged threats.”
The UN, which has resisted cooperating with the GHF, has warned that the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are in danger of starving after an 11-week Israeli blockade, with the rate of young children with acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
“Lost generation for the future”
In the wake of the looming famine, it became clear that health officials in the region had documented more than 300 miscarriages over the course of an 80-day period.
With the availability of basic medical supplies like iron supplements and prenatal vitamins, expecting mothers are more likely to experience miscarriage and premature births.
According to Brenda Kelly, a consultant obstetrician at Oxford University Hospital, Gaza is “losing a future generation of children,” making reference to a “staggering rise” in stillbirths, miscarriages, and pre-term births.
One of the main causes of miscarriages and stillbirths is “what we’re seeing now is the direct result of Israel’s weaponizing of hunger in Gaza,” she said.
Grave stress and psychological trauma, repeated displacement, and a lack of safe shelter all contribute to severe malnutrition in pregnant women, she said.
Source: Aljazeera
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