The Government Media Office (GMO) issued a statement on Sunday saying that the Israeli occupation army has detonated more than 80 booby-trapped robots in residential neighbourhoods in Gaza City over the past three weeks, confirming that more than one million Palestinians in Gaza and the north refuse to be displaced to the south.
It added that the Israeli occupation army continues to commit systematic and grave crimes against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, in blatant violation of international law.
The statement pointed out that these crimes include the targeting of unarmed civilians, including children and women, and the forced displacement of residents in a crime of mass forced transfer that meets all elements of war crimes.
The GMO stressed that detonating robots is part of a criminal pattern that reflects a scorched-earth policy during Israel’s ground operations against residents and civilian neighbourhoods, leading to large-scale destruction of homes and property and exposing civilians to grave dangers.
The occupation army also continues to commit the crime of starvation against more than 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip, including over one million in Gaza City and the north, by deliberately preventing the entry of food and water, in clear violation of Article (54) of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions.
The statement noted that this starvation policy has already caused the deaths of more than 332 people, including 124 children, stressing that this is accompanied by systematic destruction of what remains of the healthcare system, and deliberate targeting of essential elements of civilian life, with the aim of eliminating any possibility of normal life continuing.
The GMO confirmed that more than one million Palestinians remain in Gaza City, refusing to succumb to forced displacement and ethnic cleansing, affirming their legendary steadfastness in the face of the Israeli war machine.
The statement saluted the resilience of the heroic Palestinian people, strongly condemned the Israeli occupation army’s ongoing crimes against civilians, and held Israel and the US administration fully responsible for the continuation of this genocide.
The GMO called on the international community, with all its institutions and bodies, to take a serious and effective stance to immediately stop these crimes, halt the ongoing genocide, protect civilians, and hold Israeli leaders accountable for their crimes before the competent international courts.
Many residents in Gaza City are opting to stay put despite Israel declaring the territory’s largest city a combat zone.
It was Gaza’s most populous city before the war began, home to about 700,000 people. Then hundreds of thousands fled under Israel’s forced evacuation threats before many returned during a January-to-March ceasefire – which Israel broke.
Fedaa Hamad, who was displaced from Beit Hanoon, said she has ‘no plans to leave’ Gaza City this time despite Israel’s latest warning.
‘We are tired from the first displacement. Where are we going to go? Is there a place in the south? We cannot find it,’ she said.
Akram Mzini, a resident from Gaza City, said he would not leave ‘because displacement is very difficult.
‘We were displaced to the south before, and displacement in the south is not simple and it is costly,’ he said. ‘Life is difficult, so we will stay in our home, and whatever God wants will happen,’ he added.
‘There is no safe place at all, wherever you go.
‘We just have to have faith in our heart that this place is going to be safe enough until we finish what we’re doing. And then we get back to our base. But there’s no guarantee that here is safe. I mean, the drones are pulling up above Gaza City.’
The vast majority of people do not have the financial capabilities to evacuate to central and southern Gaza.
There is lots of contradiction and misleading narrative when it comes to safety.
The Israeli military has raided Gaza City at least six times.
It is definitely different this time because it threatens the very existence of Palestinians. Even for those people who have previously tolerated this six times with the Israeli military operations on the ground.
- Thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday in several European countries, including Italy and Germany, calling for an end to the war of extermination and starvation waged by Israel against the Gaza Strip.
In Italy, thousands joined a major protest held on the sidelines of the Venice Film Festival. Organised by leftist groups, the demonstration featured banners demanding an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and calling for a boycott of Israel.
In Germany, thousands rallied in Frankfurt under the slogan ‘United for Gaza.’ According to Al Jazeera, the scene in Frankfurt was unprecedented in the context of protests against the war on Gaza, with organisers estimating up to 100,000 participants.
Police intensified their presence around the demonstration and stated they would act firmly against any unauthorised or unlawful slogans.
Local authorities had previously banned the protest, but the High Administrative Court overturned the decision, affirming the organisers’ right to hold the event.
In Rotterdam, Netherlands, a protest was held urging the international community to intervene urgently to end Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
Participants condemned the ongoing massacres and starvation in Gaza, denouncing what they described as the shameful silence of the international community.
Protesters also raised slogans demanding the lifting of the blockade on Gaza, the delivery of food and medical aid, an end to the occupation, and accountability for Israeli war criminals and all those complicit in the genocide.
In Brussels, dozens of doctors gathered outside the European Parliament in solidarity with Gaza.
Responding to a call from Palestinian Doctors in Europe, participants issued an appeal to the international community to save Gaza’s collapsing healthcare system.
Protesters condemned Israeli strikes targeting hospitals and medical personnel, as well as the blockade preventing the entry of medicines and humanitarian aid, calling it a violation of international law and human rights.
In Oslo, Norway’s capital, demonstrators demanded an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
They urged their government to intensify diplomatic efforts to secure an immediate ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Protesters also condemned what they saw as European governments’ failure to respond to the acts of genocide committed by Israel against Palestinians.
In Stockholm, activists held a symbolic funeral for journalists killed by Israeli fire in Khan Younis.
- Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) confirmed the rapid spread of a new strain of influenza in the Gaza Strip amid a severe shortage of medicines caused by the Israeli blockade and the ongoing war of extermination.
In a statement on Sunday, the GMO explained that in recent days, especially among displaced people in shelters, as well as among patients and children in particular, there has been a sharp and widespread outbreak of this new influenza strain, under catastrophic health conditions caused by the Israeli blockade and ongoing genocide.
The rapid spread was attributed to extreme overcrowding, lack of water and ventilation, and the collapse of health services due to the war and Israeli restrictions, posing a direct threat to the lives of the most vulnerable.
It noted that the few hospitals still operating are handling this wave of illness amid severe shortages of staff and medical supplies, relying only on primary care and symptomatic treatments, without comprehensive treatment protocols, due to the Israeli ‘criminal measures’.
The GMO stressed that infections are estimated in the thousands across all governorates of the Gaza Strip, with daily increases, particularly among children, the elderly, and patients with chronic diseases.
It added that no specific or effective medicines for this strain are available in Gaza; and if they exist, they are in extremely limited quantities, but are virtually nonexistent because of the Israeli ongoing prevention of dozens of essential medicines from entering, in clear violation of Article (56) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which obligates it to provide medical care to populations under occupation.
The GMO held Israel and the US administration fully responsible for the deterioration of health conditions in the Gaza Strip, and called on the international community, as well as Arab and Islamic states, to intervene to stop the genocide, open the crossings, lift the blockade, and bring in medicines before it is too late.