Another bloody night unfolded in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli occupation forces continued their wide-scale attacks against civilians, employing aerial and artillery bombardment as well as systematic demolitions of homes using booby-trapped robots.
The strikes, focused mainly on Gaza City and its surrounding areas since early Tuesday morning, resulted in the killing of 39 Palestinians—35 of them in the city alone, with others injured or missing. The scenes were described as part of a continuing campaign of genocide, aiming to reoccupy the city and forcibly displace its population.
In north-western Gaza City, Israeli occupation forces committed a horrific massacre by targeting adjacent homes belonging to the Zaqout, Hamad, and Ashour families near the General Security Junction, killing eight civilians, including women and children, and injuring over 40 others. Dozens more remain trapped beneath the rubble.
Throughout the night, civil defence and medical teams worked tirelessly to retrieve victims amid widespread destruction affecting neighbouring buildings.
In the eastern al-Daraj neighbourhood, airstrikes hit two residential homes belonging to the Taha and Masoud families near Shawwa Square, killing three Palestinians and leaving others missing. The attacks also caused heavy damage to nearby homes, as hospitals continued to receive the bodies and wounded. Medical sources confirmed that 20 bodies had been pulled from the rubble in these two incidents alone.
In the southern Sabra neighbourhood, four people were killed in a strike targeting the Hindi family’s home. Additional injuries were reported in an air raid on the Siyam family’s house in al-Shati Refugee Camp, west of the city. Shelling also struck near the Hamama School in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, resulting in more injuries, mostly among women and children.
In addition, Israeli occupation forces carried out successive demolitions of residential buildings using explosive-laden robots in Sheikh Radwan, accompanied by intense airstrikes on the Mukhabarat and Karama areas in the north-west, along with drone fire directly targeting homes.
The bombing extended to central Gaza, where a father, mother, and their daughter from the Tamraz family were killed in a strike on their home on Souq Street in Deir al-Balah. Others were injured. Displaced civilians were also wounded when their shelter tent at Abu Humeisa School in al-Bureij Refugee Camp was bombed.
In the early hours of the morning, a Palestinian was killed and others injured by Israeli gunfire near the Netzarim corridor while waiting for humanitarian aid, another chapter in the ongoing pattern of attacks on civilians, even in aid collection zones.
What is unfolding in Gaza constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law, which prohibits targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, and outlaws indiscriminate warfare or collective punishment.
The United Nations has previously stated that the famine in Gaza is “man-made”, reinforcing the assessment that what is happening amounts to genocide, an intentional campaign to destroy an entire population through killing, destruction, and deprivation of life’s essentials.
With continued political and military support from the United States, this war, ongoing since 7 October 2023, has so far resulted in more than 64,900 deaths and around 165,000 injuries, most of them women and children. Starvation has claimed the lives of hundreds more, including dozens of children, making Gaza today the scene of one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the modern era.
