Residents of the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City, awoke to yet another tragedy after an Israeli airstrike completely destroyed the home of the Awad family, killing 14 civilians, including women and children, and injuring others. The attack marks another episode in the ongoing pattern of indiscriminate targeting of residential areas.
The strike levelled the home, burying victims beneath the rubble, while others remain missing as rescue teams—severely hindered by equipment shortages caused by the blockade—struggle to recover those trapped.
Elsewhere, two civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a group of residents in Shouka, east of Rafah, while a young girl sustained serious injuries when her family’s home in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, was struck.
Israeli forces have also escalated their systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure, flattening entire residential buildings in Tel al-Sultan, west of Rafah, and opening heavy fire in eastern Jabalia and Beit Lahia.
This escalation comes as part of an ongoing campaign of mass killing that began on 7 October 2023, with Israeli forces continuing to carry out large-scale attacks against the Palestinian population. The assault has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian casualties, including countless children, women, and the elderly, amid persistent international inaction and silence.
In parallel with the bombardments, Israel maintains a suffocating blockade on Gaza, preventing the entry of food, medicine, and humanitarian relief, leaving those who survive the airstrikes at risk of slow death from hunger, disease, and lack of medical care.
The gravity of these crimes is further compounded by the complicity of global powers that continue to support Israel’s military operations, effectively shielding it from accountability and blocking any meaningful legal recourse for victims of the assault.
The scale and pattern of attacks demand an urgent international investigation into potential war crimes and acts of genocide, as the collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population continues unabated before the eyes of the world.
