Thirty-six Palestinians were killed on Saturday in heavy bombardment launched by the Israeli occupation forces across various parts of the Gaza Strip. This comes as part of an ongoing campaign of genocide that has entered its 21st month, targeting the civilian population in the besieged territory.
Eyewitnesses and medical sources reported that the victims were killed in airstrikes, drone attacks, and artillery shelling that targeted displaced persons’ tents, schools, and homes. There were also reports of direct gunfire on groups of civilians as they waited for humanitarian aid.
Among the dead were eight civilians who had gathered near an American-Israeli aid distribution point west of Rafah in the south of the Strip. Occupation forces opened fire on the crowd; a scene that continues to repeat itself amid a suffocating siege and widespread hunger that is claiming the lives of children and women.
In Khan Younis, southern Gaza, a drone strike killed a doctor and four of his children inside a tent sheltering displaced persons in the Al-Mawasi area. In a similar attack near the port area, a father and his son were also killed. The shelling sparked fires in the tents, raising serious concerns about the possible use of incendiary munitions against civilians.
In Gaza City, seven people were killed in a strike on Al-Imam Al-Shafi’i School in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, which was sheltering displaced families. Another three, including two children, were killed in an attack on a home near Al-Mawhoobeen School in Sheikh Radwan, with several others wounded. Tents housing displaced persons were also damaged due to the intensity of the bombardment.
In central Gaza, two people were killed in a strike on a home in Al-Maghazi refugee camp. Another airstrike on a residential building in Al-Bureij camp killed two brothers and left several others injured.
The repeated targeting of schools, camps, and locations where civilians gather in search of food or shelter reveals a deliberate policy to render every civilian gathering a legitimate target. These actions align with well-documented patterns of systematic killing and collective starvation.
Such crimes, including killing, denial of aid, and destruction of vital infrastructure, form the explicit elements of the crime of genocide as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention. These acts leave little doubt about the clear intent to destroy part of the Palestinian population in the Strip.
Since 7 October 2023, this war has resulted in the killing and wounding of nearly 193,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children, with over 10,000 reported missing. Famine has taken hold, and hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced.
Despite the scale of atrocities, the military operations continue under the cover of an international stance that offers little more than expressions of concern, while entire generations are being wiped out with no path to justice in sight.
