Israeli strikes have ramped up across the Gaza Strip, killing over 90 Palestinians since dawn on Thursday, medical sources told Al Jazeera early Friday morning Gaza time.
Israeli attacks included a strike on a tent camp in al-Mawasi, a so-called “safe zone” in southern Gaza that has come under repeated bombings. The attack killed at least 12 Palestinians, including several children and the head of Gaza’s now-defunct police force.
Waleed al-Bardaweel, a survivor of the attack, lost three of his sons in the attack: Mohammed, 13, Ahmed, 11, and Abdul Rahman, seven. “The Israeli army called this place a safe zone. Their claims are all lies and slander,” al-Bardaweel told Middle East Eye.
Ziad al-Lulu, another survivor of the attack, told MEE the tent camp was hit at 1 am without any warning. “The next thing we knew, our world was engulfed in flames. Children were torn apart, women were torn apart, it was like the day of judgment,” al-Lulu said.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said the attack also killed Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Salah, director general of police in Gaza, and Maj. Gen. Hussam Shahwan, another police official. Israel’s targeting of Gaza’s police force has impeded aid deliveries, making them vulnerable to looting from armed gangs, which Israel has been allowing to happen.
Other Israeli attacks included strikes in Gaza City, which killed at least six Palestinians. In the southern city of Khan Younis, an Israeli strike targeted a building belonging to Gaza’s Interior Ministry, killing six Palestinians.
A photographer in Gaza was also killed, bringing the total number of journalists and media workers killed by Israel in the Strip since October 2023 to 217.
The heavy Israeli strikes came a day after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to intensify attacks on the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire, which caused minimal damage and no casualties. Katz said the enclave would face “blows of an intensity not seen in Gaza for a long time.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its daily update on Thursday, which it releases about mid-day Gaza time, that at least 28 Palestinians were killed and 59 were injured. The figures only account for dead and wounded Palestinians who arrived at hospitals and morgues. “There are still a number of victims under the rubble and in the streets that ambulance and civil defense teams cannot reach,” the ministry wrote on Telegram.
The ministry added that the “death toll from the Israeli aggression has risen to 45,581 martyrs and 108,438 injuries since October 7, 2023.”
In October, a group of American healthcare workers who volunteered in Gaza estimated in an open letter to President Biden that the US-backed Israeli onslaught has killed at least 118,908 Palestinians, a total that includes indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who led the letter, told Antiwar.com in a recent interview that the estimate was the bare minimum they came up with by looking at the available data.
