Twenty Palestinian civilians were killed early Friday in a series of airstrikes carried out by the Israeli occupation forces across various parts of the Gaza Strip, marking a new bloody escalation in the ongoing campaign of genocide against the enclave.
The airstrikes targeted densely populated areas in the north, centre, and south of Gaza. One Palestinian was killed in a strike on the Six Martyrs Junction in Jabalia refugee camp in the north, while another two civilians were killed in a separate attack west of the same camp.
In Jabalia town, Israeli forces targeted a residential home opposite the Sultan Tower, killing a Palestinian woman and injuring others. Three more civilians lost their lives in a direct strike on a gathering of people in the Al-Saftawi neighbourhood, also in the north.
At dawn, the Jabalia Al-Nazla area witnessed yet another massacre that killed seven civilians. Meanwhile, two others were killed when a civilian vehicle was targeted in Abasan Al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis in the southern part of the Strip.
In a stark display of disregard for civilian life, Israeli forces bombed two tents sheltering displaced people west of Khan Younis, killing three Palestinians who were later taken to Nasser Medical Complex. In Rafah’s northwest, a Palestinian was shot dead and others were injured in the Al-Shakoush area.
This latest wave of bloodshed forms part of a continuous campaign of genocide that began on 7 October 2023, which has so far left around 177,000 Palestinians killed or injured—most of them women and children. More than 11,000 people remain missing, the majority believed to be buried beneath the rubble of bombed homes.
Approximately 1.5 million people in Gaza are now homeless after Israeli bombardments destroyed their homes. With border crossings sealed to humanitarian aid, famine is rapidly spreading, and deaths due to starvation and lack of medicine are on the rise. The blockade imposed on Gaza for the past 18 years has evolved into a complete stranglehold on life itself—used as a tool of collective punishment aimed at breaking the will to survive.
The violations in Gaza constitute a clear genocide under international law, where the Palestinian civilian population is being systematically targeted as a national group, through mass killings, forced displacement, deliberate starvation, and the widespread destruction of infrastructure and healthcare facilities.
Meanwhile, the international community remains deafeningly silent, as these crimes continue with open political and military support from several major global powers. This raises serious ethical and legal questions about the credibility of the international system for civilian protection, and the effectiveness of international justice mechanisms in confronting modern-day genocide.
