The Israeli army launched attacks across the Gaza Strip after an assault on a tent camp in al-Mawasi in the south killed at least 25 people, according to Palestinian officials.
On Saturday, at least 42 Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks on the Shati refugee camp and the Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City, the head of the Gaza government’s media office told Tel Aviv Tribune.
From Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said the Israeli army targeted a residential area of the Shati refugee camp, where displaced Palestinians from the north of the territory were expected to seek refuge.
“Rescuers, with the help of civilians, are trying to search the rubble for survivors,” he said. “The number of victims arriving at Al-Aqsa Hospital is increasing. »
Gaza civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said it was “very difficult” to reach victims in Shati.
“Israel is reattacking the areas in which it had operated, despite its previous announcement that it had succeeded in militarily controlling the northern part of Gaza,” Abu Azzoum reported.
Israeli attacks killed 101 Palestinians and injured 169 in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday, as many people lay under rubble and ambulances and civil defense teams could not reach them.
This is the highest daily toll recorded in the enclave by the ministry since June 8, when Israeli forces killed at least 274 Palestinians to free four Israeli captives in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
On Friday, an Israeli attack near the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) base in al-Mawasi camp – designated by Israel as a safe zone – which Palestinian officials said killed at least 25 people and injured 50 others, involved two strikes. , reported the Associated Press news agency.
Witnesses whose relatives died in one of the bombings told AP how Israeli forces fired a second salvo that killed people coming out of their tents.
“We were in our tent and they threw a ‘sound bomb’ near the Red Cross tents, then my husband came out at the first sound,” Mona Ashour, whose husband was killed in the attack, in front of the Nasser hospital. in the neighboring town of Khan Younis.
“Then they struck with the second one, which was a little closer to the Red Cross entrance,” she explained.
The ICRC condemned the attack on the camp and said the location of its humanitarian office, which was hit, was known to the warring parties. He reported 22 dead and 45 injured.
The ICRC office in Gaza, surrounded by hundreds of displaced civilians living in tents, was damaged by shelling near Gaza.
Shooting so dangerously close to humanitarian structures endangers the lives of civilians and humanitarians.
– ICRC (@ICRC) June 21, 2024
“Firing so dangerously close to humanitarian structures, the location of which is known to the parties to the conflict and which are clearly marked with the emblems of the Red Cross, endangers the lives of civilians and Red Cross personnel,” he said. he declared in a press release.
“The strike damaged the structure of the ICRC office, which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced civilians living in tents, including many of our Palestinian colleagues. »
A survivor of the attack told Tel Aviv Tribune that the gunfire was “consuming” them “in all directions”.
“We had just eaten and were about to sleep and rest, and the next thing we heard was the sound of loud explosions destroying our homes. We find ourselves alone without knowing what to do. We still can’t understand what happened,” the survivor said.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Abu Azzoum noted that in the past 24 hours since the assault on al-Mawasi, there has been an increase in Israeli attacks.
“Witnesses said Israeli tanks made a sudden and unexpected incursion into al-Mawasi, launching a number of artillery shells towards evacuation centers and makeshift tents,” he said. declared Saturday.
“The entire al-Mawasi area is an evacuation center. This is a very small strip of land where more than 100,000 Palestinians have taken refuge. It is the place where field hospitals have been established and it is a center for humanitarian organizations,” he added.
The Israeli military said there was “no indication” that it was responsible for Friday’s attack on the camp, but said the matter was under investigation. Earlier, the army said its forces were carrying out “precise, intelligence-driven” actions in the Rafah region.
According to the Health Ministry on Saturday, more than 37,500 people have been killed and 85,900 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from Hamas-led attacks stands at 1,139, with dozens still held in captivity. in Gaza.
