Since the early hours of Thursday morning, the Israeli occupation has continued its intensive attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 22 civilians, including children and women, and injuring others with varying degrees of severity.
This toll came as a result of a series of air and artillery strikes targeting displaced persons’ tents and civilian facilities across different areas of the Strip.
According to medical sources, 12 of the dead arrived at al-Aqsa Hospital, four at al-Shifa Medical Complex, two at Nasser Hospital, and another two at al-Ma’madani and al-Awda Hospitals.
In Deir al-Balah, three civilians were killed and 13 others wounded when tents housing displaced people were bombed in the centre of the Strip. Meanwhile, a drone strike in Gaza killed a child this morning.
In Khan Younis, eight people were wounded when a tent sheltering displaced persons inside the grounds of al-Aqsa University was struck, while the Palestinian Red Crescent reported two killed and others wounded in an airstrike on a charitable kitchen in al-Mawasi.
In the same context, the occupation army detonated four booby-trapped vehicles in neighbourhoods in southern Gaza, while artillery shelled the city’s eastern districts and the Maghazi refugee camp, and warplanes launched heavy strikes on Khan Younis. This comes after 85 more civilians were killed yesterday during continuous air raids on the Strip.
Since 7 October 2023, the ongoing aggression has left more than 66,148 dead and 168,716 wounded, most of them children and women. In addition, 455 civilians have died from famine, including 151 children.
These horrific figures, coupled with the repeated targeting of civilians, hospitals and humanitarian camps, place what is happening in Gaza within the framework of genocide under international law.
Genocide is defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, or religious group, through deliberate killing, causing serious physical or mental harm, or imposing living conditions intended to bring about its destruction. This corresponds to what the occupation is committing against Gaza’s population: large-scale killings, systematic destruction of infrastructure, and the imposition of a suffocating blockade that has caused deadly famine.
The repeated targeting of civilians and protected facilities such as hospitals, schools, and displacement camps also constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, particularly the Geneva Conventions, which oblige warring parties to protect civilians and keep them out of military operations.
What is unfolding is no longer merely a matter of “violations” but amounts to crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, requiring urgent action from the international community to halt the aggression and hold those responsible to account.
