The Israeli bombing of Gaza killed dozens of people as it intensified attacks on the besieged territory amid a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the bodies of 30 people killed in Israeli strikes arrived at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City on Friday, in what it described as a “difficult and brutal day.”
At least 25 people were also killed and another 50 injured in Israeli attacks on tents for displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, near Rafah in the southern coastal enclave, it said.
In a separate incident, the Palestinian Civil Defense agency said crews transported several people killed and injured in Israeli shelling in the al-Shakoush area, northwest of Rafah.
Israeli forces bombed the Gaza City municipality garage as well as a five-story building in the city, Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul reported.
The Health Ministry previously said Israel’s military had killed at least 35 Palestinians in the previous 24 hours, bringing the death toll from the invasion to 37,431 since October 2023.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation continued to deteriorate as a result of the Israeli blockade of the territory, which brought Gaza to the brink of famine.
Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said on Friday it may have to suspend its operations in Gaza due to a shortage of health supplies.
“MSF faces a critical shortage of essential medicines and equipment as it has been unable to bring medical supplies to Gaza since the end of April,” the group said in a statement.
He explicitly blamed Israel for the situation, including the seizure and closure of the Rafah crossing last month. The gateway between Gaza and Egypt served as an important artery for the entry of humanitarian assistance and aid workers.
“The closure of the Rafah crossing following Israel’s offensive in southern Gaza in early May, coupled with endless bureaucracy imposed by Israeli authorities, has led to a dramatically slow flow of humanitarian aid through the now open Kerem Shalom crossing. [Karem Abu Salem] point of entry,” said MSF.
“This has led to huge queues of trucks and dangerous delays in the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.”
‘Intentional attack on civilians’
Israeli attacks have killed more than 270 aid workers in Gaza since the war began in October, making it increasingly difficult to deliver aid to Gaza.
Israel launched its attack on Rafah in early May despite international warnings, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians – many of whom have already fled other parts of Gaza.
But the United States, which has sternly warned Israel against invading the southernmost city of Gaza, has insisted that the Israeli attack is not a “major” offensive.
Friday’s deadly attacks come two days after a United Nations-backed commission concluded that Israel’s “deliberate” use of heavy weapons in Gaza constituted an “intentional and direct attack on the civilian population.”
Israeli bombing has leveled entire neighborhoods in Gaza, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected accusations of targeting civilians.
“In terms of trying to avoid civilian casualties… the Israeli army has made efforts that no other army in history has made,” he told US publication Punchbowl News on Friday.
O interview was criticized by several international journalists for its “softball” questions.
Palestinian armed groups remain active in Gaza and Israel has only managed to rescue a handful of prisoners captured by Hamas during the October 7 attack, which killed more than 1,100 Israelis.
On Friday morning, the Israeli military announced the deaths of two of its soldiers, and the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed several attacks against Israeli forces later in the day.
Netanyahu said Israel is seeking the “sustained demilitarization” of Gaza, which would be followed by the establishment of a civilian administration “with the cooperation of inter-Arab sponsorship and assistance from Arab countries.”
“And then the third thing would obviously be some kind of deradicalization process that would start in schools and in mosques to teach these people a different future than annihilating Israel and killing every Jew on the planet,” he told Punchbowl News.
“And the fourth, would be reconstruction, which would be largely taken over, I think, by the international community.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
