sraeli aerial attacks hammered Gaza from north to south yesterday, killing at least 46 people by midday, with a strike on a school in Nuseirat killing numbers of children.
The Israeli military issued displacement orders for residents of Khan Younis, particularly those living in the Abasan and Bani Suhaila neighbourhoods in the east.
The order was clear, saying the city will witness an ‘unprecedented’ attack, throwing many families into a state of chaos as they tried to get whatever they could and move to al-Mawasi, where the Israeli military had instructed them to go.
But then it was reported that a makeshift tent was struck in al-Mawasi yesterday morning, killing two civilians.
Gaza’s government media office said the Israeli military’s ‘daily massacres’ are part of a systematic policy of genocide. ‘Such brutal conduct leaves no doubt about the occupation’s deliberate intent to commit organised genocide,’ it said.
The office labelled several of Israel’s allies – the US, UK, Germany and France – as ‘complicit’ and urged the UN and international rights groups to take urgent action to ‘stop this genocide’.
‘History will not forgive, and the conscience of the world is facing a critical test: either it stands for truth, justice, and humanity – or it records itself in the pages of shame and complicity,’ said the statement.
Israel’s deliberate blocking of aid is driving up the risk of famine, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned.
He said the WHO and other UN agencies stand ready to deliver aid into the enclave – if and when it is allowed to enter.
‘Two months into the latest blockade, two million people are starving,’ the WHO chief said, and 160,000 metric tonnes of food are ‘blocked at the border just minutes away’.
‘People are dying from preventable diseases as medicines wait at the border, while attacks on hospitals deny people care, and deter them from seeking it.’
Hamas has rejected claims that it has agreed to a temporary truce in the Gaza Strip, asserting that it will not release the remaining Israeli captives as long as the occupying regime can continue its genocidal war afterwards.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said reports that Israel and Hamas are considering US proposals for a deal that would see the release of about half of the 20 living captives in return for a truce lasting about two months are false.
He dismissed the reports as ‘fake news,’ saying the Tel Aviv regime is trying to ‘confuse the public’ in order to pressure the resistance and carry out its crimes.
‘We will not hand over the occupation’s captives as long as it insists on endlessly continuing its aggression against Gaza,’ he said.
Abu Zuhri also expressed Hamas’s readiness to release all the captives at once, on the condition that Israel ends its Gaza onslaught, with international guarantees.
Abu Zuhri said Hamas initiated the handover of the American soldier Eden Alexander to create an atmosphere for reaching an agreement, but the US administration did not appreciate the resistance group’s step.
‘The resistance is fine, and there is no concern about its future. Its operations continue despite the vast disparity in equipment with the enemy,’ he added.
