On Monday, Day 255 of the ongoing Israeli genocide of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army killed and injured dozens of Palestinians, including many women and children, and burnt the departure halls and various facilities in the Rafah Border Terminal with Egypt.
In Rafah, in Gaza’s southmost part, the Israeli army fired missiles at civilians, on Monday night, killing nine Palestinians and wounding many.
|Earlier Article: Day 255: Ongoing Bombing Kills, Injures, Dozens In Gaza”|
A medical source at the Gaza European Hospital said the corpses of nine slain Palestinians and several wounded, including some seriously, were transferred to the medical facility, in Khan Younis in the southern Strip.
Also at night, Israeli military drones fired missiles at Palestinians in Rafah, killing two and wounding many others.
One of the slain Palestinians was killed in a drone attack targeting a house in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah, while the second Palestinian was killed when the army fired missiles at the Khirbet Al-Adas area, south of Rafah; the attacks caused many injuries, including among several children, some seriously.
In Gaza City, the army fired a missile at a mosque where families sheltered in the Daraj neighborhood, killing and wounding many Palestinians, including children.
In related news, the number of slain Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip is now at least 151, after a journalist, Mahmoud Qassem, who worked for Palestine Online daily, was killed by an Israeli missile.
In numerous incidents, media offices, including the Government Media Office, and various human rights organizations have issued warnings regarding the deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists by the army to suppress reporting on the crimes being committed in Gaza.
Data and statistics from the Committee to Protect Journalists revealed that this onslaught has been the deadliest for journalists since the organization’s establishment in 1992.
The International Center for Journalists highlighted in February that the violence against journalists during the war in Gaza reached unprecedented levels in 30 years, urging Israeli authorities to cease targeting journalists and thoroughly investigate any incidents involving the killing of media personnel by their forces.
In addition, Israeli sources said that, a few days ago, a reserve soldier killed himself in a public street shortly after returning from the Gaza Strip, due to what “psychological issues he faced.”
About ten days ago, another soldier, Eliran Mizrahi, with the Engineering Corps, committed suicide just two days after his discharge; he was driving an armored military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip and spent about 78 days in active military service in the Gaza Strip.
He was supposed to be redeployed in Rafah within a few days. Israeli sources said that Mizrahi was diagnosed with PTSD and that he will not be recognized as a “fallen soldier” because he wasn’t in active military service; 10 soldiers have committed suicide since October 7, 2023.
Media sources said that, when Mizrahi was in Gaza, he used to share videos of himself, operating the Israeli military D9 bulldozer, and destroying Palestinian homes and property.
On the international level, New Zealand said it will be providing additional support to the World Food Program and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), to deliver urgently needed life-saving humanitarian aid to the devastated Gaza Strip.
In a post of X, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said, “New Zealand will provide an additional $5 million to the World Food Program and UNICEF for food assistance, sanitation, and health, and this will bring New Zealand’s humanitarian assistance to the region to $22 million.”
Last week, New Zealand said it is resuming its funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) after it suspended it last January.
Furthermore, an investigation by the Associated Press revealed that the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip led to the erasure of entire lineages, and sometimes the death of four generations of the same family in the Gaza Strip.
The bodies of the murdered Palestinians are being collected from the streets after the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood in the west of Rafah. https://t.co/5gxvX9q31t pic.twitter.com/A96kraAdg9
— Gaza Notifications (@gazanotice) June 17, 2024
The investigation concluded that the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has reached an unprecedented level, encompassing all forms of warfare including air, land, and sea attacks, resulting in the loss of entire Palestinian families.
The investigation also identified approximately 60 Palestinian families, with each family suffering the loss of around 25 individuals between October and December 2023, marking the bloodiest and most devastating phase of the ongoing onslaught, which has now entered its ninth month.
#Gaza| They forced her family to leave her behind and forcibly displaced them, before laying her on her granddaughter’s bed and setting fire to the house. These are the details of the execution of 92-year-old Palestinian elderly woman Naifa al-Souda by the Israeli army. pic.twitter.com/XZQ1GEHKJj
— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) June 17, 2024
One of the significant findings of the investigation is that numerous families have been left with hardly anyone to document the death toll or identify their deceased loved ones, as many of them remain trapped under the rubble.
The Associated Press analyzed ten Israeli bombings that specifically targeted civilians, including the deadliest ones that occurred between October 7 and December 24, 2023, resulting in the deaths of over 500 people.
Among the most severely affected families were the Al-Mughrabi family, who lost more than 70 members in a single Israeli airstrike in December 2023, and the Abu Al-Naja family, who suffered the loss of 50 members during the October 2023 bombings.
The Maghmash family also experienced significant casualties, with at least 44 members killed when the army fired a missile at a mosque, and the death toll rose to 100 in the following weeks. By spring, the Abu al-Qomsan family had lost over 80 members.
The analysis of these strikes revealed that they predominantly targeted residential buildings, homes, and shelters where multiple generations of families sought refuge, with no clear military targets or prior warnings to those inside.
Consequently, the Salem family alone lost a minimum of 270 civilian members. The American agency has emphasized that the deaths of numerous Palestinian families will have long-lasting repercussions, affecting entire lineages for generations to come.
Furthermore, the Israeli soldiers burned the departures hall at the destroyed and occupied Rafah Border Crossing with Egypt.
The army also burnt all facilities inside the Rafah crossing, causing it to be completely out of service.”
Enas Hamdan, the acting director of the Information Office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), highlighted the impact of the closure of the Rafah land crossing in southern Gaza on the living conditions of the displaced individuals in the Strip, emphasizing the scarcity of essential supplies such as food, medicine, and shelter materials.
Hamdan pointed out that the closure of the Rafah crossing has led to increased challenges in the delivery of humanitarian aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing, exacerbating the already dire situation faced by those in need in Gaza.
She also expressed concern over the limited number of trucks carrying aid that can enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing, stating that it falls short of meeting the urgent and unprecedented needs of the affected population in the region.
On its part, the Palestinian Health Ministry said the Israeli army committed two massacres of families, in the Gaza Strip, killing ten Palestinians and wounding 73, in 24 hours.
Israel has now killed at least 37.347 Palestinians and injured more than 85.372, mostly children, women, and elderly, in several parts of the Gaza Strip, since October 7, 2023.
Thousands of Palestinians remain missing, largely under the rubble of bombarded homes, in destroyed alleys, and on streets, in various parts of the Gaza Strip, while medics and rescue teams remain unable to reach them due to constant bombing and massive destruction.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers and paramilitary colonizers have killed 549 Palestinians, including 135 children, and injured at least 5,200 others, since the beginning of the military onslaught against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
The latest casualty in the occupied West Bank was a child, Sultan Abdul-Rahman Khataba, 16, who was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier in Beit Furik town, southeast of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank’s northern part.
