AT LEAST 40 Palestinians only just displaced from Rafah were killed when a residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp was bombed by Israeli forces yesterday.
The worst of Monday night’s Israeli attacks were on the camp where the three-storey residential building where an estimated 100 people were sheltering was completely flattened.
Israeli attacks on the house and a school in Nuseirat killed at least 40 Palestinians, including large numbers of children.
Al-Jazeera reporter Hani Mahmoud said: ‘Some of those killed were newly displaced people from Rafah, mainly from the city’s eastern and central parts.
‘Civil defence crew, paramedics and volunteers worked hard to reach survivors who might have survived the attack, but after more than seven hours they have only been able to remove five people from under the rubble.
‘There are still more people trapped, but fears are growing that rescue efforts may come to an end, as rescuers lack the equipment to remove large pieces of rubble to get people out.
‘We’re talking about a three-storey building that housed not only residents but also dozens of other displaced Palestinians in Rafah that made it to Nuseirat three days ago.
‘I met the neighbours. I met the family. I met one of the relatives of people still trapped under the rubble earlier today. They were telling me heartbreaking things.
‘Imagine escaping the air strikes in Rafah, looking for a safe space but being killed after three days of evacuating – not only being killed but being trapped where the Civil Defence teams do not have any equipment to remove or pull these people from under the rubble.
‘I saw Civil Defence teams doing their best … they were digging with their bare hands, with very basic tools. This was not the first time we have seen this scene. We have been seeing this for more than seven months now.
‘Unfortunately, it may come to a point where the Civil Defence teams will give up on this house because there are more people being targeted every single hour across the Gaza Strip.’
Nearly 450,000 people have been displaced from Rafah since last Monday May 6th, when Israel began its incursion into the city, according to United Nations agency UNRWA.
Israeli forces ‘continue to target and destroy the heavy equipment that helps us recover the victims’, said a Civil Defence Forces spokesman at a press conference outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah.
A severe fuel shortage is further straining rescue efforts, which may soon come to ‘a total halt’ he said.
‘As we speak, hundreds of victims remain buried under the rubble and our teams are not able to recover them. These numbers are continuing to rise.’
Over the past two days, wounded patients have been transferred from various hospitals and field hospitals into the central area, particularly to Al-Aqsa Hospital.
The hospital’s corridors are overcrowded to bursting point. The rooms are packed with people. Every patient has at least one or two family members with them, literally staying on the floor.
