There may be talk of an almost imminent ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, but Israeli forces have continued wreaking carnage in Gaza without let-up.
Yesterday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported 142 dead and 487 wounded in the previous 24 hours. Thirty nine of the dead, it said, were victims at aid distribution points, with more than 210 injuries. Today it added another 118 killed and 581 wounded to those numbers, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed since the war broke out following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack to 57,130 with another 135,173 wounded. “The majority of the martyrs are women and children, all unarmed civilians; underscoring the occupation’s deliberate targeting of the most vulnerable groups,” The Government Media Office said in a statement.
Among those killed in the last three days was Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, Director of the Indonesian Hospital in the Northern Gaza Strip, who, along with his family, died in an Israeli air strike on his home.
One of the most horrific massacres carried out by the IDF in recent days was a strike on the Al Baqa café in Gaza City on June 30, one of the few remaining businesses operating in Gaza and a place that people flocked to in order to charge their cell phones and connect to the internet. London’s The Guardian reported evidence yesterday that the IDF used a 500-lb bomb on the café. Some 30 people, all unarmed, were killed, and dozens more wounded. An IDF spokesperson said the attack on the café was under review and claimed that “prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians using aerial surveillance.”
Gerry Simpson of Human Rights Watch rejected the Israeli claim. “The Israeli military hasn’t said exactly whom it was targeting, but it said it used aerial surveillance to minimise civilian casualties, which means it knew the café was teeming with customers at the time,” he said. “The military would also have known that using a large guided air-dropped bomb would kill and maim many of the civilians there. The use of such a large weapon in an obviously crowded café risks that this was an unlawful disproportionate or indiscriminate attack and should be investigated as a war crime.”
The carnage continued today. By mid-day, at least 97 more people were killed by IDF airstrikes and fire. One airstrike hit a school in Gaza City where, according to medics, displaced families were sheltered, and at least 17 died. Reuters reported that one witness, Wafaa Al-Arqan, said: “Suddenly, we found the tent collapsing over us and a fire burning. We don’t know what happened. What can we do? Is it fair that all these children burned?” Then medics at Nasser Hospital reported that at least 20 people were killed by Israeli fire en route to an aid distribution site. Around Gaza aid locations this morning, at least 45 people were killed.
