Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday that Israel’s assault on Gaza killed another 34 Palestinians in the previous 24-hour period, and 96 others were wounded.
“Israeli forces killed 34 people and injured 96 others in three ‘massacres’ of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency. “Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them.”
The ministry’s death toll does not account for the estimated 10,000 Palestinians who are missing and presumed dead under the rubble, and it’s unclear how many indirect deaths there have been caused by the Israeli siege, which has completely shattered Gaza’s infrastructure.
Israeli airstrikes were reported in northern, central, and southern areas of Gaza, including a bombing that hit a home in Khan Younis, killing at least four. Israeli artillery fire killed at least two Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north.
Israeli forces targeted the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza again on Thursday, which came after a Wednesday strike in the camp hit a UN school sheltering displaced Palestinians. Initial reports said 14 were killed in the massacre, but the death toll rose to 18 on Thursday.
The strike on the school killed six employees of the UN’s Palestinian relief agency, known as UNRWA. The killing brought the death toll for UNRWA employees in Gaza since October 7 to 220.
Israel claimed its strike on the school targeted a Hamas “command center,” but it offered no evidence for the claim. The UN said Thursday there was no evidence that its employees were members of Hamas.
The Biden administration continues to support the genocidal slaughter in Gaza by providing weapons to the Israeli military. A senior Israeli Air Force official recently acknowledged that without the US military aid, Israel would not be able to sustain operations in Gaza for more than a few months.
