Israeli Airstrikes Across Gaza Kill, Injure Dozens
IMEMC | April 11, 2025
On Thursday, Israeli forces intensified bombing and shelling across the destroyed, besieged, and starved Gaza Strip, causing dozens of casualties, including women and children.
In Gaza City, a building in the city center was targeted, killing at least five Palestinians and injuring many others. Six more Palestinians lost their lives, and several were wounded when the army struck the Abu Al-Awn family’s home in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood.
Among the injured was a Palestinian infant whose arm had to be amputated following the attack.
In Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, the army launched missiles at the Abu Al-Ajeen area, killing two Palestinians and wounding several others. Homes in Qizan Najjar, south of Khan Younis, were also shelled by Israeli forces.
Further south, in Khan Younis, a missile targeted the Abu Doqqa family’s home in the Shahayda area, north of Abasan town, killing two Palestinians, including a child.
In another incident, a displaced family sheltering near Nasser Hospital was struck by a missile fired from an Israeli helicopter, killing one Palestinian and injuring others.
Additional strikes in Khan Younis led to the death of a woman and injuries to several residents at the Al-Farra family’s home in the Sheikh Nasser area.
In Mawasi Rafah, the southernmost part of Gaza, a Palestinian was killed when soldiers fired live rounds at displaced residents in the Shakoush area.
On the political front, Israeli Channel 13 reported ongoing indirect discussions regarding a prisoner exchange deal, which include proposals for the release of more than five Israeli captives. Kan News stated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conducted a situation assessment with military officials and negotiation teams about the Egyptian-mediated proposal.
According to reports, the Egyptian plan includes releasing eight captives alive, implementing a 50-day ceasefire, allowing humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, and commencing negotiations for a second phase aimed at ending the war and facilitating an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Sources reveal that the proposal, considered “serious” by Arab media, includes the release of eight or nine Israeli captives, among them an American-Israeli soldier named Aidan Alexander, along with eight bodies. In return, Israel would release 300 Palestinian detainees, including 150 serving life sentences, and 2,200 detainees from Gaza.
The plan also outlines a 70-day extension of the ceasefire in Gaza, during which the second phase of negotiations would proceed. This phase includes facilitating the delivery of fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza, reopening border crossings, and providing Hamas with detailed information about the status of remaining hostages.
Medical sources cited by Al Jazeera reported that Israeli attacks since dawn on Thursday have claimed the lives of at least 29 Palestinians, with additional casualties being reported amid ongoing strikes. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), expressed alarm over the escalating humanitarian crisis. He warned of worsening health conditions and rising fatalities resulting from Israel’s blockade on aid shipments, emphasizing the urgent need for medical evacuations for over 10,000 individuals in Gaza.
To date, Israeli bombardments have claimed the lives of at least 50,886 Palestinians, including 12,365 women and 17,954 children. Approximately 11,000 individuals remain missing, largely believed to be under the rubble of bombed homes and buildings. The total number of wounded has now surpassed 115,875, primarily affecting children, women, and the elderly.
Exposing the UN’s hypocrisy of humanitarian aid and ceasefires
By Ramona Wadi | MEMO | April 10, 2025
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council this week that, “As aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have re-opened. Gaza is a killing field – and civilians are in an endless death loop.” With not a single mention of the word genocide in his entire speech, Guterres stated, towards the end, “The world may be running out of words to describe the situation in Gaza, but we will never run away from the truth.”
A correction is needed here. The world is not running out of words to describe the situation in Gaza — “genocide” will do for the moment — and the UN is indeed running away from the truth.
Guterres’s statement is evidence of this, as is over a year of prioritising Israel’s security narrative and purported concern about the hostages, while Israel itself bombs them along with Palestinian civilians in Gaza. “Certain truths are clear since the atrocious 7 October terror attacks by Hamas,” said Guterres.
But he uttered not a single word about Israel bombing the Gaza Strip.
As expected, because the international community follows its own trends rather than the facts on the ground, Guterres maintained the rhetoric of ceasefires and humanitarian aid shamelessly. Ceasefires work, said the UN Secretary General, allowing for the release of hostages and the delivery of humanitarian aid. “That all ended with the shattering of the ceasefire,” he added, without bringing Israel’s culpability into the equation. The ceasefire just “shattered”.
It is the UN’s tactic of portraying the delivery of humanitarian aid as a form of neutrality that has enabled this façade of helplessness for so long. Humanitarian aid is highly politicised, which is one reason why there is always less money for it than there is for arms and ammunition. It is the reason why corrupt power remains at the helm; starving people need nourishment and they are forced to wait for it in the name of human rights. Meanwhile, the politics of liberation, of decolonisation, of autonomy, are not only marginalised but eliminated altogether.
Why? Because international law is forced to revolve around the demands of the oppressor and its accomplices.
Guterres should say something about this. Some truths from the halls of power would clarify why Gaza has been abandoned in the name of humanitarian aid and ceasefires.
In the absence of truth, though, Guterres would have the world believe that all that Gaza needs is linked to the delivery of humanitarian aid, and that the hostages can be released if a ceasefire is maintained. However, humanitarian aid can no longer even gloss over colonial violence; the Gaza Genocide is too visible to ignore. Negotiations for ceasefires take months due to Israel’s insistence on completely wiping out Palestinians from Gaza — more talks give the occupation state more time to finish the job — which make the correlation between ceasefires and the hostages’ release very minimal.
To further his humanitarian paradigm, Guterres reminded Israel of its obligations under international law which, of course, Israel will ignore. Again, however, the travesty of reminding a colonial enterprise – “an occupying power” as Israel is usually described to avoid describing its occupation as colonialism – to be mindful of its humanitarian duties is the way the UN pretends to make international law work.
But how about a reminder from Guterres that the colonised people are entitled to decolonisation under international law, instead of ensuring – against international law – that colonial entities are apparently entitled to commit genocide?
Hamas says statements and condemnations are no longer acceptable from Arab and Islamic countries
MEMO | April 10, 2025
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement has said that it is “no longer acceptable” for Arab and Islamic countries simply to make “timid statements and condemnations”, at a time when Israel is intensifying its killing in Gaza before the eyes and ears of the world.
“It is also inconceivable that our Palestinian people are being left alone in this fateful confrontation, without real support that rises to the challenge and the magnitude of the crime,” added Hamas in a press statement on Wednesday. The movement pointed out that the Israeli occupation army committed another massacre — described as “one of the most heinous crimes of the genocide” — by bombing a residential area crowded with civilians and displaced persons in the Shujaya district east of Gaza City.
By giving the occupation state its full support, said Hamas, the US is regarded as being complicit as a partner in the aggression against the Palestinians. “This is a stain on the international community, which stands helpless and silent in the face of the most heinous acts of mass murder and genocide. These brutal crimes, committed in full view of the world against innocent, defenceless civilians, with the aim of genocide and sadistic revenge, will not go unpunished, nor will they be forgotten with the passage of time.”
History, said the resistance movement, will hold accountable all of those who remained silent and colluded with the Zionist war criminals. It called on the leaders of Arab and Islamic countries to perform their historical and humanitarian responsibilities and to put every possible pressure on the occupation state and its supporters in Washington to immediately halt the aggression, lift the siege and hold the “war criminals” accountable for their crimes.
Furthermore, Hamas called on countries that still maintain relations with the Zionist occupation state to sever ties and close the embassies of the “Nazi entity” in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are being subjected to a “brutal Zionist war of annihilation”.
The movement also called on the masses in the Arab and Islamic nations and the free people of the world to continue their support for Gaza, and even escalate and intensify it until the Gaza Genocide ends.
SABA source refutes Trump claim of killing Yemeni operatives in strike

Saba – April 5, 2025
Sana’a – A private source to the Yemeni news agency, Saba, on Saturday denied the allegations made by the criminal US President Trump regarding what he described as the targeting of a secret meeting of military leaders preparing to carry out naval operations.
The source explained that the video clip published by the criminal Trump, claiming that it was a gathering of military leaders, was merely an event for a social Eid visit in Hodeida province. Similar events are held in various provinces on all holidays and occasions, and this is well known to all Yemeni people.
He emphasized that those present at that gathering had no connection to the operations carried out by the Yemeni Armed Forces, which are implementing the decision to ban navigation on ships linked to the American and Israeli enemy, as the criminal Trump claimed.
The source stated that this heinous American crime, which left dozens of martyrs and wounded, reflects the extent of America’s bankruptcy and failure in its aggression against Yemen, and that it is an extension of the genocide committed by the Israeli-American aggression in Gaza.
He stressed that this heinous crime will not be forgotten, and that the Yemeni armed forces, which stood up for the people of Gaza, will not let the blood of the Yemeni people go in vain.
Video footage refutes IOF account of attack that killed 15 Gaza medics
Al Mayadeen | April 5, 2025
A video retrieved from the cell phone of a Palestinian paramedic, whose body was discovered alongside 14 other aid workers in a mass grave in Gaza in late March, shows clearly marked ambulances and a fire truck with emergency lights activated as they came under heavy Israeli gunfire, The New York Times reported on Friday.
During a press conference at the United Nations on Friday, officials from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), moderated by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said they had submitted the nearly seven-minute video to the UN Security Council.
Earlier in the week, Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani denied that Israeli forces had “randomly” attacked an ambulance. He claimed that multiple vehicles had been seen “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals toward Israeli troops, prompting the shooting. He also claimed that nine of the individuals killed were Palestinian Resistance fighters.
The Times acquired the footage from a senior UN diplomat who requested anonymity in order to share sensitive material. The location and time of the video, captured in Rafah in southern Gaza early on March 23, were verified by the newspaper.
Vehicles clearly marked
Shot from inside a moving vehicle, the footage depicts a convoy of ambulances and a fire truck, all clearly marked and displaying both headlights and flashing emergency lights, driving southward on a road north of Rafah just after sunrise.
The convoy halts when it comes across a damaged ambulance on the roadside—an earlier vehicle sent to aid injured civilians had reportedly come under attack. The new rescue vehicles move to the side of the road. At least two uniformed rescue workers are seen exiting the fire truck and ambulance, both bearing the Red Crescent emblem, and approaching the damaged vehicle.
Suddenly, intense gunfire erupts. The barrage of bullets can be seen and heard striking the convoy. The footage shakes and then goes dark, though the audio continues for five minutes with unrelenting gunfire. A man’s voice is heard in Arabic noting the presence of Israeli soldiers.
The paramedic filming the attack is repeatedly heard reciting the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith typically spoken when facing death. He asks for forgiveness and expresses that he knows he is going to die.
“Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose — to help people,” he says.
In the background, voices of distressed aid workers and shouted commands in Hebrew are audible, though the content of the Hebrew speech remains unclear.
According to PRCS spokesperson Nebal Farsakh, speaking from Ramallah, the paramedic who filmed the video was later found with a gunshot wound to the head in the mass grave. His identity has not been made public due to concerns for the safety of his family still living in Gaza, a UN diplomat confirmed.
‘Targeted from a very close range’
At the UN headquarters press conference, PRCS President Dr. Younis al-Khatib and Deputy Marwan Jilani said the evidence they had gathered—including the video, audio, and forensic analysis of the bodies—directly contradicts the Israeli military’s account.
The disappearance and subsequent discovery of the 15 aid workers, missing since March 23, have sparked global condemnation. Both the UN and PRCS maintain that the victims were unarmed and posed no threat.
“Their bodies have been targeted from a very close range,” indicated al-Khatib, criticizing “Israel’s” failure to provide information on the missing medics. “They knew exactly where they were because they killed them.”
“Their colleagues were in agony, their families were in agony. They kept us for eight days in the dark,” he said.
It took five days of negotiation between the UN, PRCS, and the Israeli military before safe access was granted to search for the missing. On Sunday, rescue teams recovered 15 bodies, mostly buried in a shallow mass grave, alongside crushed ambulances and a UN-marked vehicle.
Al-Khatib stated that one member of the Palestinian Red Crescent remains missing, and “Israel” has not clarified whether he is in custody or has been killed.
Dr. Ahmad Dhair, a forensic doctor at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, said he examined five of the aid workers’ bodies and found four had sustained multiple gunshot wounds, including to the head, chest, and joints.
“I think the scale of this crime should force, that it should oblige the international community to do more and not to accept that this would be another incident that goes in the files and be forgotten after a few days,” Jilani underscored.
According to the UN and PRCS, one Red Crescent paramedic in the convoy survived after being detained and later released by the Israeli military, and he provided a firsthand account confirming Israeli forces had opened fire on the medical convoy.
Dylan Winder, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ representative to the UN, condemned the attack as an outrage, describing it as the deadliest incident involving Red Cross or Red Crescent workers worldwide since 2017.
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for an independent investigation, warning that the incident raises “further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military.”
Israel has left over 39,000 orphans in Gaza

Palestinians inspect destroyed building following the Israeli army attack in the Gaza Strip on April 1, 2025 in Khan Yunis, Gaza [Abed Rahim Khatib – Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | April 4, 2025
A new report has revealed that more than 39,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both their parents, as the death toll from Israeli attacks on the Strip has risen to 50,523, with 114,776 others injured since 7 October 2023.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics stated that Gaza is experiencing the largest orphan crisis in modern history, with tens of thousands of children losing their parents due to the ongoing Israeli assault.
In a statement issued ahead of Palestinian Children’s Day, which is marked tomorrow, the bureau reported that 39,384 children in Gaza have lost one or both parents after 534 days of Israeli attacks on the Strip. Among them, around 17,000 children have been left without both parents, facing life without support or care.
The Israeli occupation army continues its attacks on civilians in Gaza, decimating the enclave and forcibly displacing its over two million residents.
Euro-Med Monitor: Israel’s brutality in Gaza surpasses all recent forms of terrorism
Palestinian Information Center – April 4, 2025
GAZA – nature of Israel’s crimes in the Gaza Strip must be denounced, particularly the crimes’ horrifying scope, methodical execution, and wide-ranging effects, which surpass those of armed groups like ISIS, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said.
While the crimes committed by ISIS have been widely denounced by the international community, the same community is now mostly silent—and therefore complicit—as Israel pursues a campaign of declared genocide that aims to exterminate the Palestinian people from their homeland, the Euro-Med said.
Israeli occupation forces detonated a robot on Thursday 3 April 2025 rigged with tons of explosives in the heart of the densely populated Shuja’iyya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City. The explosion occurred in an area packed with displaced civilians, though there was no military necessity and no combat activity in the vicinity. This act embodies the conduct of existing terrorist organizations, even surpassing them in brutality and disregard for human life, and bears no resemblance to the conduct of a state bound by international law, regardless of any attempts to distort or evade it.
The explosion killed 21 Palestinians and injured around 100 others, the majority of them women and children. A full residential block was obliterated with its residents still inside, and this is not an isolated incident. Over recent months—particularly in the northern Gaza Strip—Israel has increasingly used explosive-laden robots in residential neighborhoods during its ground incursions. At least 150 such detonations have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians, mostly women and children, and caused wide-scale destruction to homes and other essential infrastructure.
A separate atrocity was committed on 23 March, when Israeli forces detained 15 Palestinian rescue workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent and Civil Defense, along with a United Nations staff member, before executing them extrajudicially—some while their hands were bound. Their bodies were dumped into a pit, and the ambulances they had been travelling in were destroyed. This incident is another blatant example of an intentional Israeli crime mirroring—and exceeding—the brutality of groups like ISIS, as it reveals a clear and deliberate intent to annihilate Palestinians both physically and through psychologically terrorizing residents across the Strip.
Euro-Med Monitor field teams have documented thousands of crimes committed by Israeli forces, constituting overwhelming evidence of mass atrocities. These crimes include an unprecedented pattern of violence in recent history, in terms of scale, deliberate targeting, and genocidal intent. A minimum of 58,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority of them women and children, and most have been buried beneath the rubble of homes deliberately destroyed over their heads, while many were killed by sniper fire with clear intent. Over 120,000 individuals have been injured, and at least 39,000 children have been orphaned. The Gaza Strip’s infrastructure, including homes, hospitals, and schools, has been virtually obliterated.
These acts amount to one of the most extensive and systematic campaigns of extermination in contemporary history, underscoring the urgent need for international accountability, an end to Israeli impunity, and concrete action to halt further atrocities.
Israel’s methods in the Gaza Strip—particularly its mass killing of civilians—bear a striking resemblance to the tactics used by groups the international community has widely condemned as terrorist. However, the atrocities unfolding in the Strip are far more dangerous in terms of scale, brutality, and systematic intent, and cannot be understood merely as a function of violent methods or tools.
The rights group pointed out that these actions cannot be dismissed as random or extreme policies, but rather represent a fully-fledged model of organized state terrorism, driven by a comprehensive blueprint for annihilation and implemented in full view of the international community.
“These crimes are being committed with clear, declared intent to eliminate the Palestinian people as a national and collective entity, uproot those who remain on their land, erase their identity, and ultimately end their collective existence.”
Euro-Med called all states, both individually and collectively, to fulfil their legal obligations and take urgent action to stop Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip in all its forms. This includes implementing concrete measures to protect Palestinian civilians, ensuring Israel’s compliance with international legal norms and the rulings of the International Court of Justice, and guaranteeing full accountability for perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It also stressed the importance of implementing the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against the Israeli Prime Minister and army minister at the earliest opportunity and ensure these individuals’ transfer to international justice.
Furthermore, Euro-Med called on the international community to impose comprehensive economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel in response to its grave and systematic violations of international law. This includes an arms embargo; the cessation of all political, financial, and military cooperation; asset freezes of implicated officials; travel bans; and the suspension of trade privileges and bilateral agreements that provide Israel with economic benefits, enabling its continued crimes.
Israel uses human shields in Gaza ‘at least six times a day,’ says Israeli officer
MEMO | April 1, 2025
Hamas Agrees to New Gaza Ceasefire Proposal: Armed Resistance “Red Line”

Head of Hamas in Gaza Khalil Al-Hayya
Al-Manar | March 30, 2025
Hamas said on Saturday it had approved a proposal from mediators for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which it received two days earlier.
“In our commitment to our people and families, we have engaged with all proposals responsibly and positively, aiming to end the war,” Khalil Al-Hayya, head of Hamas in Gaza Khalil Al-Hayya, said in a statement.
“Two days ago, we received a proposal from our mediator brothers. We responded positively and approved it. We hope the occupation does not obstruct it or undermine the mediators’ efforts,” the statement added.
The statement also reaffirmed Hamas’ stance on armed resistance, calling it a “red line” and warning that “the weapon of resistance” will remain in the hands of the people and the state “if the Israeli occupation persists.”
“We will never accept humiliation or disgrace for our people. There will be no displacement or deportation,” it added.
Hamas further stated that, along with other factions, it had submitted to Egypt a list of independent professionals and experts to help form a committee to manage the enclave.
Israeli occupation forces resumed strikes in Gaza on March 18, ending a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that started on January 19. More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli war on Gaza.
Hamas released on Saturday a video that shows one of the Israeli captives it is still holding on Gaza. The video showed him pleading the Zionist PM Netanyahu to approve an exchange deal in order to see his son.
Despite the intensive mediation efforts for a ceasefire, the Israeli Occupation Army said in a statement that its troops have begun new ground operations in the Al Janina area in Rafah, southern Gaza, aimed at expanding the security zone.
Oxford city council passes boycott divestment, sanctions motion
Press TV – March 26, 2025
The Oxford City Council has passed a motion supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, in accordance with International Court of Justice (ICJ) rulings.
On Monday, the members of Oxford City Council unanimously voted for an “ethical investment and procurement” process against Israel.
The motion calls on the Oxford City Council to avoid cooperation and trade with entities complicit in human rights violations and international law.
In January 2024, the ICJ delivered an interim ruling that said it was plausible that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. The court called on Israel to refrain from impeding the delivery of aid into Gaza
Amongst other orders, ICJ also ordered Israel to avoid acts of genocide in the besieged enclave and punish incitement to genocide.
The Israeli regime not only has continued to ignore the ICJ’s rulings but also has committed numerous acts of genocide against the people of Palestine, including the restriction of the delivery of international aid into the besieged enclave.
Given Israel’s disregard for the Court’s orders, Oxford councilor Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini said councilors had “unanimously passed a boycott and divestment motion citing the ICJ rulings on Palestine.”
One of the motion’s proponents, councilor Barbara Coyne, said in a press release, “I hope this motion will be thoroughly implemented, and that its passage may pave the way for other councils to take decisive action.”
In addition, the Council has called on the Oxfordshire Investment Fund to divest more than 157 million pounds from companies complicit in the Israeli regime’s apartheid, genocide, occupation, and settler colonialism.
The people of Palestine have long called for boycott, divestment, and sanctions, including an arms and energy embargo, against the occupying regime.
The BDS movement demands that Israel, under international law, withdraw from the occupied territories, remove the separation barrier in the West Bank, and respect the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.
Hamas Mourns Senior Leader Salah Al-Bardawil, Martyred in Israeli Airstrike on Gaza

Al-Manar | March 23, 2025
The Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” mourned the death of Salah Al-Bardawil, a key figure in its political bureau and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting his family tent in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
The attack, which also claimed the life of his wife, was described by Hamas as a “treacherous Zionist assassination.”
In its statement, Hamas vowed that the martyrdom of al-Bardawil, along with that of all martyrs, would continue to fuel the ongoing struggle for liberation and return. “With every martyr, the flame of resistance burns brighter until the occupation is eliminated,” the statement declared.
A Distinguished Leader and Scholar
Martyr Salah Al-Bardawil was born in 1959 in the Khan Younis refugee camp, with roots tracing back to the occupied village of Al-Joura, near Gaza. He was an accomplished academic, earning degrees in Arabic language and Palestinian literature from Cairo University and Sudan.
His work as an educator and writer also contributed to his prominent role in establishing the Palestinian Writers Union and the National Gathering for Thought and Culture.
Al-Bardawil’s political involvement with Hamas began in the early 1990s. In 1996, he founded Al-Risalah, the first official media outlet of Hamas, and served as its editor-in-chief.
Through his weekly satirical column, “From the Streets of the Homeland,” he critiqued the Palestinian Authority, which led to multiple arrests by Israeli forces. He also led Hamas’s media department and played a central role in the formation of the National Salvation Party in 1996.
In 2006, al-Bardawil was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council, representing Khan Younis. Over the years, he held various senior positions within Hamas, including overseeing the movement’s internal and external planning while maintaining strong connections with fellow leaders.
The ongoing attacks, including the death of Salah Al-Bardawil, highlight the continuing struggle for Palestinian sovereignty and resistance against occupation.
Gaza rescue teams besieged by Israeli forces as ‘catastrophe’ unfolds
Dozens of Palestinian civilians have reportedly been executed by Israeli forces in the southernmost city of Rafah

The Cradle | March 23, 2025
Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) workers are being besieged by Israeli forces after responding to rescue calls from the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city of Rafah on 23 March.
“We are still awaiting clearance to reach the trapped team in Rafah. Occupation forces continue to besiege four PRCS ambulances, and contact with the team remains lost,” the PRCS said in a statement on Sunday morning.
According to reports, dozens of people were executed after being surrounded by the Israeli army in Rafah.
“We warn of an imminent danger threatening the lives of more than 50,000 citizens in the Baraksat area west of Rafah Governorate after they were besieged by the Israeli occupation forces,” Gaza’s Civil Defense said.
“We warn against harming the Civil Defense crews who were besieged in the same area after intervening to rescue Red Crescent crews, and contact with them is still lost,” it added.
Israeli forces opened fire at civilians fleeing their homes in Rafah following evacuation orders issued by the army.
Rafah Municipality announced that thousands of families have been forced to flee the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood under intense Israeli bombardment. It added that its crews, along with residents, remained trapped inside the area as they carried out their duties serving residents.
An Israeli airstrike also targeted a group of displaced residents in the city, killing at least three and injuring others, according to WAFA news agency.
Over 40 people have been killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza during the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry in the strip announced on Sunday.
“A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the streets, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them,” the ministry said in a statement.
A member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Salah al-Bardawil, was killed alongside his wife in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his tent late on Saturday. He was killed while praying, according to a statement released by the resistance movement on 23 March.
Israel renewed the war on Gaza early on 18 March after following through with several weeks of threats and obstruction of ceasefire talks. Over 700 Palestinians have been killed in less than a week as a result of the new campaign.
All border crossings remain shut, and Gaza is witnessing a humanitarian disaster due to a lack of aid and continuous bombardment. The strip is facing a severe water crisis due to the destruction of wells and lack of electricity.
“We are facing a compounded humanitarian catastrophe, whose severity continues to escalate under this suffocating blockade, while the disgraceful silence of the international and Arab communities emboldens the occupation to persist in its criminal policies without accountability,” the Gaza Government Media Office said on Sunday, holding the US “fully responsible” for Israel’s atrocities.
