Israel carried out a series of attacks in northern and central Gaza that killed at least 25 people, including children, as a leading rights group accused it of carrying out “acts of genocide” by denying drinking water to Palestinians.
Separate Israeli attacks on Jabalia in northern Gaza, where Palestinians have remained under a strict siege for more than two months, killed at least 16 people on Thursday, including 10 members of the same family.
In Gaza City, an Israeli attack on a house in the Daraj neighborhood killed at least four Palestinians, and another person was killed in a strike on a group of civilians in the Zeitoun neighborhood.
In central Gaza, a strike on the Maghazi refugee camp killed at least four people.
There were fears that the overall death toll would rise as many people were reported injured in the Israeli attacks.
The Israeli army also threatened to forcibly evacuate residents of the Bureij refugee camp. “The question is where people can go, because everywhere it is overcrowded in the central areas of the strip,” Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said, reporting from nearby Deir el-Balah.
At least 45,000 Palestinians have been killed and another 107,000 injured in more than 14 months of attacks across Gaza, a densely populated territory at risk of famine and experiencing famine emergency levels.
Israel began its fierce military campaign after at least 1,139 people were killed in an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 others were captured.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, often repeatedly, while Israel’s intense bombardment has left much of the territory in ruins.
Referring to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Thursday accusing Israel of using water as a weapon of war in Gaza, Abou Azzoum said the search for water in the besieged and bombed territory was “a daily struggle for survival.”
In its 179-page report, HRW details how Israeli authorities cut off and then restricted Gaza’s running water supply, rendered most of its water and sanitation infrastructure useless by cutting electricity and limiting fuel. , deliberately destroyed and damaged water and sanitation infrastructure and water repair. materials; and blocked the entry of essential water supplies.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry denied the accusations, calling them “lies,” and said the organization was promoting “anti-Israel propaganda.”
Another report from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) released Thursday found “clear signs of ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, particularly in the northern part of the Strip.
“Our direct observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with descriptions provided by a growing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza,” the organization said.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has repeatedly ordered Israel to take all necessary measures to ensure that water and basic food supplies reach the Palestinian population of Gaza without delay.
Despite this, Israel continues to be accused by the United Nations and humanitarian organizations of restricting aid supplies to Gaza by effectively blocking access to the enclave.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday that Israeli authorities had “once again” denied access to heavily besieged Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya and eastern Jabalia.
“We highlighted how the vast majority of our efforts to reach the northern Gaza governorates since the Israeli siege began 10 weeks ago have been blocked. Most requests are flatly refused,” Dujarric said.
The UN said it had planned 96 humanitarian actions in northern Gaza, but only 16 of them were facilitated by Israeli authorities.