Dozens of Palestinians, including children, were killed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in fierce Israeli attacks on the besieged territory, where new aid was being delivered on the 16th day of a war sparked by a deadly Hamas attack.
On the ground, the Israeli army intensified its attacks in the Gaza Strip. A spokesman said “dozens” of Hamas fighters had been killed there.
According to the Hamas Health Ministry, the deadliest raids took place in Deir al-Balah, leaving 80 people dead, including women and children, and several buildings destroyed. Raids also targeted Khan Younes and Rafah (south). According to the Hamas Health Ministry, a total of 4,651 people were killed in the Israeli attacks.
“We escaped like a miracle”
At the Deir al-Balah morgue, a woman burst into tears when she discovered the bodies of her daughter and several children from her family, the Natils. The names of three of them, Layan, Hani and Joane, are written in marker on their legs.
“We were sleeping at home and were woken up by windows exploding and bricks falling. We miraculously escaped,” said a survivor, Oum Ahmad, in Rafah.
Further south, in Khan Younès, another Israeli bombing on Saturday evening claimed at least thirteen lives at a cafe, the Rio, located on the ground floor of a multi-story building that had been converted into a shelter for displaced persons, a Hamas report.
“I heard the sound of an explosion and then saw dust, flames and debris flying. A minute later they knocked again,” says Naji Chourrab, who lives across the street. “Half an hour later the ambulances arrived to transport the dead and injured. I saw at least two charred bodies,” he added.
A prelude to the land invasion
Israel announced an intensification of attacks on Saturday, a prelude to a likely ground intervention by its troops in the small Palestinian territory it unilaterally evacuated in 2005, two years before the Palestinian Islamist movement seized power there.
At least 1,873 children are among the Palestinian dead in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas Health Ministry, which also recorded 14,245 injured in Israeli bombings on Sunday.
This was in retaliation for the October 7 attack by Hamas commandos, the scale and violence of which had never been seen on Israeli territory since Israel’s founding in 1948. More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, most civilians were massacred by bullets. According to Israeli authorities, he was burned alive or mutilated.
Since Hamas’ attack on its territory, Israel has vowed to destroy the Palestinian Islamist movement. General Daniel Hagari, an Israeli army spokesman, said the increased bombing was aimed at “reducing the risks in the next phases” of the conflict for Israeli forces.
The Israeli army, which has indicated it is particularly targeting northern Gaza to destroy Hamas’ infrastructure, last week urged the territory’s roughly 1.1 million residents to evacuate toward the south of the small territory, one of the largest areas The most densely populated earth in the world, in which a total of 2.4 million people live, half of them children.