Israel’s central bombing campaign, targeting Gaza City, has left over 3,000 dead in its first ten days. Israel counts around 1,400 Israelis who died from the vicious Oct. 7-8 attack by Hamas. As of yesterday, with at least 254 more deaths, Israeli bombing has killed over twice as many Palestinians, raising the legitimate question: If an eye for an eye isn’t enough, how many times over do Palestinians have to die?
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Richard Hecht explained today that the bombing of Gaza was “intelligence-led.” The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza described it otherwise, calling it an “ethnic cleansing.” Its spokesperson said that, beyond the known death count, another 1,200 people have been reported missing under the rubble, including 500 children. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that the number of humanitarian staff killed while on duty in Gaza has risen to 31, after an Israeli airstrike yesterday killed 7 more civil defense members. It gets worse.
On the eleventh day, the “intelligence-led” bombing hit a school in the morning, killing at least six. A few hours later, Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Arabi Hospital was destroyed. Preliminary estimates indicate between 200 to 300 people were killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. However, they added that many people were still beneath the rubble. Later, Al Jazeera, reporting from the site of the hospital, provided an updated figure of at least 500 deaths.
A Palestinian government statement today said: “A new war crime committed by the occupation in the bombing of Al-Ahli Arabi Hospital in the center of Gaza City, resulting in the arrival of dozens of martyrs and injured at Al-Shifa Medical Complex due to the bombing. It should be noted that the hospital housed hundreds of patients, wounded, and displaced people from their homes forcibly due to the airstrikes.”
Saudi Arabia condemned the attack as a “heinous crime.” King Abdullah II of Jordan called it a “massacre” and “war crime.”
