At least 9,770 people have been killed in nearly a month of Israeli strikes, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
At least 4,008 children have been killed in the ongoing war in Gaza, as the toll after nearly a month of Israeli bombardment reaches 9,770, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
An Israeli airstrike hit several houses near a school in the Bureji refugee camp in central Gaza on Sunday afternoon, killing at least 13 people, according to officials at Al-Aqsa Hospital.
The camp is home to around 46,000 people and was also hit last Thursday.
Footage verified by Al Jazeera on Sunday showed people searching under the rubble of houses to recover victims.
It is the third refugee camp hit by Israeli airstrikes in the past 24 hours. More than 50 Palestinians have been killed in attacks on al-Maghazi and Jabalia refugee camps in Gaza.
“A real massacre”
Arafat Abu Mashaia, a resident of al-Maghazi camp, said Israeli airstrikes razed several multi-story houses where people forced to leave other parts of Gaza were sheltering.
“It was a real massacre,” he said Sunday morning as he stood on the rubble of destroyed houses. “Here, everyone is a peaceful people. I challenge anyone who says there was resistance (fighters) here. »
The camp, a built-up residential area, is located in the evacuation zone where the Israeli army had urged Palestinian civilians to seek refuge as it focused its military offensive on the north.
Saeed al-Nejma, 53, said he was sleeping with his family when the explosion hit the neighborhood. “All night, I and the other men tried to pull the dead from the rubble. We have children, dismembered, torn apart,” he said.
Israeli planes again dropped leaflets, urging people to head to southern Gaza during a four-hour window on Sunday. Crowds of people were seen walking on foot along the strip’s main north-south highway with only what they could carry in their arms. Others drove donkey carts.
One man said he had to walk 500 meters (1,640 feet) with his hands raised to pass Israeli troops. Another described seeing bodies in damaged cars along the road.
“The children saw tanks for the first time. O world, have mercy on us,” said a Palestinian who declined to give his name.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Khan Younis, said there appears to be a “systematic attack” on Gaza refugee camps by Israeli forces.
“These repeated airstrikes against refugee camps in central and southern Gaza are the reason why people are not taking seriously the Israeli announcement to guarantee safe corridors to the south,” he said. -he declares.
According to the United Nations, 1.5 million people are now displaced in Gaza out of a population of 2.3 million.
The strikes and trips come as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.
Blinken reaffirmed Washington’s position calling for “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to protect civilians and allow foreign nationals to leave while still “allowing Israel to achieve its goal” of defeating Hamas.
Egypt and Jordan publicly rebuked this stance at a press conference on Saturday, instead calling for an immediate ceasefire – echoing the stance of other leaders in the region.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again rejected the idea of stopping the offensive, ignoring calls and protests across the world.
“There will be no ceasefire without the return of our hostages, we say this to our enemies and our friends. We will continue until we defeat them,” Netanyahu told air and ground teams at Ramon Air Base in southern Israel on Sunday.
Israel says it targets Hamas fighters and assets, accusing the group of using civilians as human shields. Critics say the Israeli strikes are disproportionate, given the large number of civilians killed.