SCORES of Palestinian civilians were murdered and many others injured on Friday as the Israeli genocide campaign in Gaza continued for the 42nd day in a row.
Reports from Wafa correspondents confirmed that four civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike which targeted a house in the southern city of Khan Younis. Additionally, several people were killed and injured in the Israeli shelling of a house in the nearby town of Bani Suhaila, located to the east of the city.
Furthermore, at least 18 civilians, including children and women, lost their lives in an airstrike that targeted a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
In the northern region of Jabalia, a densely populated city, dozens of civilians were killed and injured as Israeli warplanes relentlessly targeted residential squares with a series of airstrikes. The assault extended to the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital, with the Israeli occupation forces intensifying their bombardment in the area.
With all hospitals in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip out of service due to the dire conditions at the Baptist Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, the situation has become increasingly critical.
Tank incursions by Israeli occupation forces around the Jordanian Field Hospital have also added to the challenges faced by medical teams.
Gaza has also been cut off from the outside world, with a complete disruption of landline and mobile telecommunications and internet services. The Israeli blockade, the depletion of fuel necessary to operate key network components, and the ongoing massacres across the Gaza Strip have contributed to the isolation and deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the region.
- Israeli forces have raided al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip, amid a new communications blackout.
Israeli troops on Friday carried out building-by-building searches at al-Shifa, where thousands of patients, premature babies, staff, and displaced people are trapped.
Al-Shifa Hospital has become a focal point for Israeli strikes since the regime’s troops raided the complex on Wednesday, alleging that the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, was using it as a command centre. Hamas and hospital managers categorically deny the claim.
The latest raid on al-Shifa came as communications in Gaza were once again cut off.
Gaza’s main telecommunications companies, Paltel and Jawwal, said on Thursday that all telecom services had gone out.
The Paltel group said all telecommunications were down because ‘all energy sources sustaining the network have been depleted, and fuel was not allowed in.’
The UN warned that the blackout would compound the misery of civilians.
‘When you have a blackout and you cannot communicate with anyone anymore… that triggers and fuels even more the anxiety and the panic,’ said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA).
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have repeatedly targeted hospitals, residential buildings, mosques, and churches. Under the Geneva Convention, attacks on hospitals are strictly prohibited.
On October 17, hundreds of civilians were killed and injured by Israeli airstrikes on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. The attack has been condemned as an act of genocide by many governments around the world.
Several hospitals in Gaza City have become refuges for Palestinians hoping to be spared Israeli bombardments, which began early in October.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has urged the United Nations secretary-general to form an international committee to visit hospitals in the besieged strip to counter Israel’s ‘false’ claims that they are used as launch pad for anti-Israel operations. Hamas has noted that the claims are aimed to ‘justify’ Israel’s attacks on hospitals in Gaza.
Also on Friday, an Israeli strike targeted al-Falah School, which houses thousands of displaced people, in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City, leaving a large number of people killed and injured.
Israel also continued its fatal air and artillery strikes on other parts of Gaza, including the southern province of Khan Yunis.
Since the beginning of the continuous Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7, nearly 11,500 Palestinians, including over 4,700 children and 3,155 women, have been killed, with nearly 29,000 others wounded.
