Israeli Forces Kill 56 More Palestinians in the Gaza Strip

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that Israeli forces killed at least 56 Palestinians and wounded another 278 in the previous 24-hour period as Israel continues to launch strikes across the Strip.

The ministry said the latest violence brings its recorded death toll since October 2023 to 41,965 and the number of wounded to 97,590. The figures only include injured and dead Palestinians who arrived at hospitals or morgues and don’t account for the estimated 10,000 people who are missing and presumed dead under the rubble or indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege.

In an open letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris, 99 American healthcare workers who volunteered in Gaza said they believe over 118,000 Palestinians have been killed, a number that accounts for starvation deaths and other indirect causes.

Israeli strikes on Tuesday included attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. On Sunday, Israel issued a new evacuation order for all of north Gaza, which signaled the start of an ethnic cleansing plan that has been reviewed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the streets of Jabalia are strewn with the bodies of dead Palestinians. “Eyewitnesses said that a number of civilians were lying on the ground in the streets and alleys of Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, as civil defense crews were unable to rescue them due to the continuous Israeli occupation bombing,” the news agency said.

The Cradle reported that the Qassams Brigade, the armed wing of Hamas, said its fighters were engaged in “fierce clashes” with Israeli forces in the Jabalia camp.

An Al Jazeera journalist reporting from Jabalia said the Israeli military was ordering civilians to leave the camp but was also blocking the way out. “The army is blocking the way out. We are all trapped here. We don’t know what will happen in the next hours,” said Moath al-Kahlout.

Heavy Israeli strikes were also reported in central Gaza in the refugee camps of Nuseirat and Bureij. Israel also hit targets in southern Gaza, with Wafa reporting at least eight Palestinians were killed by a drone strike that targeted civilians gathered at a water filling station.

The US continues to back the genocidal slaughter in Gaza as much of the world’s attention is on Israeli escalations in Lebanon and the risk of a full-blown Israel-Iran war. A senior Israeli Air Force official recently acknowledged that Israel wouldn’t be able to sustain military operations in Gaza for more than a few months without US support.