The death toll in the Gaza Strip rose to 15 by Thursday morning, including five children, following a wave of Israeli air and ground attacks on various areas of the enclave. The strikes targeted residential homes, displacement tents, and civilian shelters, part of a growing pattern of attacks on non-combatants without military justification.
In central Gaza, an airstrike on the al-Majdalawi family home in Block C of the Nuseirat refugee camp killed multiple civilians and injured others. Simultaneously, an attack on a barracks and a home in Asqoula, southeast Gaza City, left four more civilians dead. Deir al-Balah and al-Bureij camp were also struck, as was al-Zaytoun’s al-Sikka Street, which endured artillery fire.
In southern Gaza, four civilians, three of them children, were killed when a drone exploded inside a tent sheltering displaced people in Mawasi Khan Younis. Another civilian died after a drone dropped a bomb on a group east of the city. An additional man (aged 43) was killed in a strike on displacement tents near the al-Atar area, and another was killed in a tent west of Faisal Tower in al-Zawaida.
In the north, an 11-year-old girl was killed by gunfire in the al-Faluja area of Jabalia Camp. A strike on a school sheltering the displaced in the camp killed another civilian and injured several. Additional injuries were reported from a separate school bombing in Beit Lahia, and one civilian was critically wounded near Kuwait Junction in Gaza City.
These incidents constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law, particularly the principles of distinction and proportionality, which require protection of civilians and prohibit indiscriminate use of force. Attacks on homes, tents, and schools used as shelters are unlawful and cannot be justified under any security pretext.
Since 7 October 2023, Gaza’s death toll has reached 71,398, with 171,287 wounded. Since the beginning of this month alone, 425 people have been killed and 1,206 injured, with 688 bodies recovered, highlighting the magnitude of the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
This escalation reaffirms that the killing of civilians in Gaza is no longer incidental but part of a systematic pattern of grave violations that demand international legal accountability amid ongoing impunity and unrelenting suffering.
