At least 100 Palestinians have been killed overnight in Gaza and 75 were left critically injured as Israel ramped up its violence in Beit Lahiya, Jabalia camp in Northern part of the besieged enclave, media reports said.
Visuals from Gaza showed injured children being rushed to the hospitals. At least 250 people have been killed across the Gaza strip over the last 48 hours, with many others still missing under the rubble.
According to Al Jazeera, Israeli ground troops stormed Beit Lahiya, where they besieged civilian shelters and forced hundreds of Palestinians to flee their homes.
Omar Hamad, a tailor and a resident of North Gaza, wrote on X, “Worst 2 hours since the genocide started.”
Another resident Haitham El-Masri wrote, “Families are now running through the streets, chased by the sound of gunfire. There’s no shelter, no place left to feel safe.”
Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha, who won a Pulitzer Prize last week and is originally from North Gaza wrote, “Just talked to family in Beit Lahia. They told me they bombed their neighbor’s house. That house was was full of people. They are now all under the rubble. My family ran away. Other people gathered to try and rescue whoever they could. Do know what happened? Israel dropped an F-16 bomb on those people. My family called only to ask me “what is happening?”
Israel claims it is pursuing Hamas militants even as the overall death toll in Gaza reaches 54,000.
UN raises alarm over starvation in Gaza:
The attacks on the besieged enclave come after Israel has prevented food, water and medicine to enter the Gaza strip since March 2. According to a recent report by UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), at least half a million people are facing starvation while the rest are facing acute food insecurity.
In their report, the IPC said that a famine could be declared at any time between now and September.
Meanwhile, Israel has restricted access to 70 percent of Gaza to the Palestinians by declaring large areas as no go zones or issuing displacement orders.
Israel unilaterally broke the ceasefire on March 18 and since then has killed over 2,000 people, according to official data.
Many human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Court of Justice have said that the Israeli assault on Gaza could amount to extermination and plausible genocide. Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel has implemented a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza since 2007 while the West Bank and East Jerusalem are under Israeli military occupation.
