Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday that Israeli forces killed at least 55 Palestinians and wounded 132 more over the previous 24-hour period as Israel committed another massacre at a school sheltering displaced Palestinians.
The latest violence brings the Health Ministry’s death toll to 42,847 and the number of wounded to 100,544. “There are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the streets, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them,” the ministry said.
Ninety-nine American healthcare workers who volunteered in Gaza recently estimated that the true death toll is likely over 118,000, a number that accounts for Palestinians who are missing and presumed dead under the rubble and indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege.
Israeli strikes on Thursday hit a school-turned-shelter in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. According to al-Awda Hospital, 17 Palestinians, including 13 children and three women, were killed by the Israeli attack. One of the children was an 11-month-old baby.
The Israeli military claimed the school was a Hamas “command and control center” but offered no evidence.
Israeli forces continue to carry out an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza that’s focused on the Jabalia refugee camp and areas around it. In 20 days, over 770 Palestinians have been killed in the north, and tens of thousands have been forcibly displaced.