As the US-backed Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip entered day 295 on Saturday, aerial and artillery strikes continued to pound and target different areas and massacre more civilians.
The Israeli occupation army continued to bomb homes and attack citizens in different areas of Gaza, especially in Khan Yunis and Rafah.
At least 31 civilians, mostly children and women, were massacred and dozens injured in Israeli airstrikes on Khadija School in the west of Deir al-Balah City in central Gaza, which was being used as a field hospital.
15 children and eight women are among the dead.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said that Israeli warplanes bombed the field hospital with three missiles, killing 31 and injuring at least 100 others.
Meanwhile, a number of citizens were injured in an Israeli attack on the al-Shakoush area in the northwest of Rafah, in the south of Gaza.
A warplane also bombed a house belonging to the family of al-Masri in northern Rafah, killing five civilians and injuring others.
Last Friday evening, the Israeli army committed multiple massacres in Gaza, including one in al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
More casualties were reported in other areas of Gaza following Israeli aerial, artillery and shooting attacks throughout the weekend.
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has accused the Israeli occupation army of deliberately exposing the population in Gaza to living conditions that lead them to actual death, as part of its ongoing genocidal war.
‘The forced displacement orders that were issued by the Israeli army in the north of Rafah and south of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, the systematic expulsion of residents from their homes and places of residence, the confinement of hundreds of thousands of them in limited geographical areas that are constantly shrunk, and their exposure to deliberate targeting from air, land and sea reflect Israel’s persistence in committing the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip for the 295th consecutive day,’ Euro-Med said in a statement on Saturday.
Euro-Med explained that the evacuation orders that were issued by Israeli forces on Saturday morning in different neighbourhoods of Khan Yunis are ‘in fact forced displacement orders that constitute a crime against humanity according to the Rome Statute.
‘The recent forced displacement operation is part of the largest mass forced displacement campaign that has so far affected about 2,000,000 people in the Gaza Strip, most of them forcibly displaced multiple times,’ Euro-Med underlined.
The organisation again called for international action to stop Israel’s genocide and all its war crimes in Gaza, protect the civilians there, ensure its compliance with international law and the International Court of Justice’s orders, and impose effective sanctions on it.
Meanwhile, the Hamas Movement has accused Israel of spreading false statements to justify its systematic killings and targeting of defenceless civilians, civil infrastructure, and displacement shelters, the most recent of which was the targeting of the al-Sayyida Khadija, and Ahmed Al-Kurd Schools for being allegedly used for military purposes and sheltering resistance fighters.
Hamas said in a statement on Saturday that Israel spread such allegations and false statements in order to carry out the most heinous crimes against innocent civilians and to expand its war of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas also charged the United States administration with full responsibility for the continuation of the ‘fascist war of genocide’ in the Gaza Strip, through ‘its political and military support provided to the Zionist terrorist government.’
l Whenever Palestinian fisherman Omar Ayash sets out to sea, he knows that this trip might be his last. But he takes the risk and repeats it in search of a morsel of sustenance stained with blood.
In an interview with the Palestinian Information Centre, fisherman Ayash recounts the perilous journey he experiences every time he heads out to sea, amidst the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.
In the first weeks of the war on Gaza, the Israeli occupation forces bombed the fishing ports in all governorates of the Gaza Strip, destroying most of the boats.
Fishing was halted for fear of being targeted by Israel, as happens in every war and major escalation.
After the war dragged on and hunger intensified due to the Israeli siege, hundreds of fishermen and amateurs were forced to take the risk and sail the sea in search of a living.
Prior to the war on Gaza, more than 4,000 fishermen and hundreds of amateurs were working in fishing, which was their only livelihood.
Ayash is one of hundreds of fishermen who have returned to the sea after being cornered, despite the imminent dangers posed by the Israeli occupation boats near the Strip’s shores.
The veteran fisherman, who has been fishing for quarter of century, says the area he operates in does not exceed one nautical mile, yet the occupation boats still pursue him and other fishermen with gunfire and bombs.
The fishermen confirm that the prolonged period of their inability to work, coupled with the lack of compensation from any party, in addition to the famine striking the Gaza Strip and the unavailability of meat, fish and vegetables, is pushing them to take risks in search of a livelihood.
They take a small portion of their catch for their families and sell the rest to provide for their other needs, whose prices have multiplied several times over – even if available.
The Palestine Information Centre correspondent affirmed that the Israeli war boats deliberately target the fishermen with bullets and bombs, sink their boats, and arrest them.
He added that the sea is like a field of death, but the fishermen risk their lives in search of a livelihood.
Dozens of fishermen were killed by Israeli gunfire while fishing at sea during the war, despite the fact that they were sailing only a short distance into the sea.
The Israeli occupation army is not satisfied with attacking the fishermen at sea, but its boats also target them on the beach when they are repairing their boats and their nets.
The occupation forces have also set about systematically destroying the fishermen’s boats and equipment in the port of Gaza, where they have destroyed, burned and sunk hundreds of boats.
The occupation forces continue to pursue the same destructive policy against the property and equipment of the fishermen along the entire coastal strip of the enclave.
Fisherman Muhammad Al-Masar’i from Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip was sailing at sea in search of a livelihood, when the occupation boats fired at him, killing him in November of last year.
His wife said that her husband risked going to sea after life had become difficult for them in the ongoing genocide. She added that he risked his soul and decided to practice his profession of fishing, to provide for the needs of his children.
She affirmed that he did not pose any threat to the occupation and that he did not enter the sea with his small fishing boat for long distances, but the occupation had deliberately killed her husband.
Rights experts believe that targeting the fishermen and preventing them from working is part of the starvation policy imposed by the occupation army to deprive the residents of the Gaza Strip from benefitting from any local resources.
