Since dawn on Friday, the Gaza Strip has been witnessing a series of violent attacks carried out by Israeli occupation forces. These assaults targeted residential areas, tents sheltering displaced people, and gatherings of civilians, resulting in at least 14 deaths and multiple injuries of varying severity, which is a part of a bloody campaign that amounts to genocide against the civilian population.
Medical sources reported that five bodies were brought to al-Shifa Medical Complex, three to al-Ma’madani Hospital, five to al-Awda Hospital, and one to al-Aqsa Hospital as a result of the attacks.
The occupation also targeted several buildings and facilities around the Intelligence area northwest of Gaza City and in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in the south of the city, using remotely controlled booby-trapped vehicles.
In Rafah, a number of Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid were injured after being fired upon near the aid distribution centre in the al-Shakoush area, according to local medical sources.
This comes within what Palestinians describe as “death traps”, which is a system of aid distribution imposed by the occupation authorities since 27 May through the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Relief Foundation,” in the absence of UN or international supervision. This mechanism has led to thousands of civilian casualties, dead and wounded, in recent months.
What is happening in Gaza constitutes a systematic violation of international humanitarian law, with deliberate targeting of civilians and the deprivation of food, shelter, and safety. The bombing of displaced people waiting for aid and the targeting of hospitals and medical centres clearly breach the Geneva Conventions, which afford special protection to civilians, medical teams, and relief centres.
The United Nations has previously warned that the Gaza Strip faces famine and unprecedented humanitarian destruction, yet the occupation continues to ignore these warnings, pursuing a policy of collective punishment that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians.
Since 7 October 2023, the Israeli occupation has carried out what amounts to genocide in Gaza, killing 65,141 Palestinians and injuring more than 165,925 others, most of them women and children, in addition to the displacement of hundreds of thousands and the deaths of 435 Palestinians from hunger, including 147 children.
The continuation of these crimes, amid the international community’s failure to halt them, raises serious questions about the effectiveness and credibility of the international legal system in protecting civilians during conflict.
