Days after announcing plans to expel hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza and restricting them to six encampments, Israel has launched a series of strikes across the Palestinian enclave, killing at least 92 people, according to health officials.
On Wednesday local time, two Israeli air strikes attacked an area in central Gaza, including on a crowded market area in Gaza City, killing at least 33 people and injuring 86, including several women, children, and two journalists.
Among the killed was journalists Yahya Sobeih and Nour Abdu. Sobeih was a freelance reporter who recently became a father. Abdu was killed while covering an attack hours prior at a school which was sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians. That attacked left dead 27 people, according to officials from Al-Aqsa Hospital, including nine women and three children.
Gaza’s media office said that the school has been frequently struck since the war began, and that victims were taken to nearby Al-Shifa Hospital. The UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said that Israeli forces hit the school in Al Bureij, Middle Gaza, at 6pm on Tuesday and again at 10.20pm.
“The school sustained severe damage and a fire broke out in the shelter, making it difficult to evacuate the casualties. Residents had to open a hole in the wall to evacuate the dead and wounded,” UNRWA told UN News.
“Our colleagues are reporting that surviving parents and children are trying to salvage their belongings among the blood and body parts of their relatives and neighbours.”
“There is no humanity left in Gaza, and no humanity left as the world continues to watch day after day as families are bombed, burned alive and starved,” UNRWA said after the latest attack.
So far, the Israeli military has not made any comments on the strikes.
Since the start of the war, at least 52,400 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Gaza and 118,014 have been injured, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, as stated by OCHA. According to the UN, up to 1.9 million people (roughly 90 per cent of the population) across the Gaza Strip have been displaced since October 7, 2023. Israel has blamed Hamas for the death toll, claiming that it operates from civilian infrastructure, such as schools and that it will not end the war until the governing and military capabilities of Hamas are dismantled.
The latest air strikes come just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to intensify its operations in Gaza to seize it, hold on to captured territories (despite already controlling roughly 50 per cent of Gaza), forcibly displace Palestinians to southern Gaza and govern aid distribution along with private security companies. The plan also involves mobilising tens of thousands of reserve soldiers, who Netanyahu claimed will carry out the plan incrementally.
Netanyahu said that the goal of such an operation is to take down Hamas and retrieve the remaining living hostages who were taken from Israel on October 7, 2023.
Amnesty International condemned Israeli’s announcement, calling on the government to “immediately abandon its recently unveiled plans for expanded military operations including plans to annex territory and forcibly displace Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, which would gravely violate international law.”
“Israel has continued to commit genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreversible harm being inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza,” the statement said.
“Any move by Israel to displace Palestinians to the south of the Gaza Strip and confine them into so-called “closed bubbles” or continue to impose inhumane conditions of life to push Palestinians out of Gaza, would amount to the war crime of unlawful transfer or deportation.”
“If these actions are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population, they would also constitute crimes against humanity.”
Overnight, Netanyahu posted a video message on his X account, claiming that Israel knows “for certain” that 21 captives are still alive, but that “there are another three who, unfortunately, there is doubt if they are alive.”
His statement came a day after US President Donald Trump said three hostages held by Hamas in Gaza had died, bringing the number still alive to 21.
“This is a terrible situation,” Trump said during a White House swearing-in ceremony for his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. “…we want to try and get as many hostages saved as possible, and we’ve done a good job in that regard.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing the families of the hostages, issued an urgent demand for clarification from the Israeli government that if there was “new information being kept from us, give it to us immediately”.
Calling on the government to disclose any updated intelligence, the group also reiterated its demand for an immediate halt to the war in Gaza until all hostages are returned. “This is the most urgent and important national mission,” the statement read.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office there would be more information soon on a potential new plan for a hostage release deal and ceasefire in Gaza.
“A lot of talk going on about Gaza right now,” he said. “You’ll be knowing probably in the next 24 hours.”
In Gaza, Palestinians are being forced to loot and steal as starvation and malnutrition rises. Aid organisations have reported men attacking humanitarian warehouses and fighting over food supplies. It’s been two months since Israel’s total blockade, forcing families to live off one meal a day.
Earlier this week, Israeli officials promised to lift the blockade in order to execute a scheme to deliver aid as part of an “intensified” offensive in the coming weeks.
But the UN and other humanitarian officials have called the scheme would be unworkable and potentially illegal under international law.
Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns at Amnesty International said the plans “demonstrate Israel’s utter disregard for international law and its contempt for the rights of Palestinians.”
“Amnesty International reiterates its unequivocal call on Hamas and other armed groups to immediately and unconditionally release civilian hostages,” he said in a statement. “Any attempts to weaponize humanitarian aid, use it to coerce forced displacement, or establish discriminatory aid distribution zones would violate international law and must be rejected.”
“The international community must unequivocally reject these dangerous plans and pressure Israel to comply with its obligations under international law and ensure unhindered humanitarian aid access throughout Gaza.”
Image credit: Screenshot from Fox News 11, Los Angeles
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