GAZA STRIP: Israeli forces continued to attack different locations in Gaza, such as a gas station and a UN-run school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, 57 more Palestinians, including a journalist, were killed on Tuesday. This was in spite of the US continuing to criticize the high civilian casualty rate.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 26 people were injured and 17 people died as a result of an Israeli attack on a gas station in Al-Mawasi, southern Gaza. In a separate hit on the UN-run Al-Razi School in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza almost simultaneously, the Palestinian Red Crescent first reported eight casualties. Five Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on a house in Rafah, a southern border city where Israeli forces have been stationed since May, according to Gaza health officials. They reported that a man, his wife, and two children were killed in Khan Younis, which is nearby.
According to the health ministry, one of the airstrikes occurred close to a tent community in Attar Street, the humanitarian-designated area of Al-Mawasi, that was hosting displaced families.
According to his spokesperson, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed two top Israeli officials hours earlier of Washington’s “serious concern” over the fatal Israeli strikes in Gaza.
Following Blinken’s meeting with National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, spokesman Matthew Miller stated, “We have seen civilian casualties come down from the high points of the conflict… but they still remain unacceptably high.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to up the pressure on Hamas on Tuesday. He declared, “This is precisely the time to increase the pressure even more” in order to “achieve all the war objectives” and to free all Israeli captives.
large-scale relocation
With US assistance, Qatar and Egypt have mediated indirect discussions to end the horrific conflict; but, months of talks have not resulted in a breakthrough since Netanyahu is determined to meet “the war objectives.”
The talks accelerated after US President Joe Biden presented a ceasefire roadmap that he said Israel had created at the end of May. However, there has been no indication of advancement over how this might be put into practice despite meetings in Cairo and Doha.
Netanyahu has been criticized in Israel for allegedly inflaming the crisis, a charge that has been leveled at him by tens of thousands of protestors hoping for an agreement to free the Israeli inmates.
Ninety percent of the 2.4 million people living in Gaza have been forced to leave their homes due to Israeli bombardment. Seven UN-run schools have been targeted by Israeli strikes since July 6, and many more have sought safety there.
“As innocent individuals, why do they choose to target us?” questioned Umm Mohammed al-Hasanat, who was among those impacted and was taking refuge with her family at a UN-run school in Nuseirat.
Local journalist Mohammad Meshmesh was among those slain, bringing the total number of journalists slain in the battle to 160, according to the Gaza government media office, which is managed by Hamas.
Four bodies were found in a house outside the southern city of Khan Yunis, and another was discovered in the Nuseirat camp, according to Palestinian Red Crescent medics.
Figures from the Gaza Health Ministry show that since October 2023, at least 38,713 lives—mostly those of women and children—have been claimed by Israeli air and ground operations.
Inmates report being tortured.
Countless Gazans were also held by Israel’s military, and their complaints of rape, torture, and other mistreatment while in detention have been refuted by Israeli officials.
Advocate Khaled Mahajna added that after seeing the Palestinian journalists in custody, the convicts had related stories of guards prodding them with “electric prods.”
Israeli officials maintain that they are acting in accordance with international law, but five human rights organizations have filed a lawsuit in response to the conditions at the Sde Teiman camp in the desert where Gazans are being detained.
