On Friday, Israeli forces continued their ongoing relentless assault on the entire civilian population of the Gaza Strip, shooting Palestinians in an ‘arena style’ killing spree at so-called ‘humanitarian aid’ sites and dropping bombs on numerous civilian areas.
Since May 27th, when the US-based Christian Zionist company “GHF” took over aid distribution in the Gaza Strip, replacing 400 distribution sites with just 4 ‘Squid Games’ style arenas where Palestinians are forced to wait many hours, then fight each other for small scraps of food, massacres at the so-called ‘aid sites’ have become a daily occurrence, with an average of 30 – 50 Palestinians killed each day, which has increased in recent days as the Israeli-funded gangs have been given more weapons by Israel to strong-arm aid and sell the aid for incredibly exorbitant prices.
9:30 pm
The Israeli occupation forces committed a new massacre against civilians in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing and wounding dozens.
A Wafa news correspondent reported that the occupation forces bombed a group of citizens near the Darabiya roundabout west of Gaza City, killing and wounding dozens of them.
Videos showed the bodies of the killed lying on the ground, torn to pieces and charred by the bombing, which also caused devastation in the area.
2:40 pm
A Palestinian citizen and his son were killed on Friday in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City, bringing the death toll in the Gaza Strip since dawn today to 48, according to medical sources.
A WAFA correspondent reported that Abdul Majeed Al-Sharafi and his son, Basem, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
In the central Gaza Strip, two citizens were killed and others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Adini family’s home near Al-Mazra’a Street, south of Deir al-Balah.
In the southern Gaza Strip, five citizens were killed and others wounded by Israeli occupation fire while waiting near an aid distribution point northwest of Rafah.
This morning and at dawn, 35 citizens were killed and others were injured in two new massacres committed by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp reported the arrival of the bodies of 23 people, in addition to dozens of wounded, as a result of the occupation’s targeting of aid workers waiting near the “Martyrs’ Junction” north of the camp, in the central Gaza Strip.
Medical sources from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that 12 citizens were killed and others injured when the occupation forces bombed the home of the Ayesh family in the al-Ma’askar area west of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. The wounded were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city.
8:15 am
Thirty-four Palestinians were killed and others injured on Friday morning in two new massacres perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp reported the arrival of the bodies of 23 martyrs, in addition to dozens of wounded, as a result of the occupation’s targeting of aid workers waiting near the “Martyrs’ Junction” north of the camp, in the central Gaza Strip.
Medical sources from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that 11 citizens were killed and others injured when the occupation forces bombed a house in the Al-Ma’askar area, west of Deir al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip. The victims were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city.
Since October 7 , 2023, the Israeli occupation has been committing crimes of genocide in Gaza, including murder, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt the operation .
The genocide left approximately 186,000 dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and a famine that claimed the lives of many, including children.\
Also Friday, Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that Gaza City is “hours away from a catastrophic deterioration and the closure of more facilities” if fuel is not secured immediately .
This came in an interview with the United Nations website at the conclusion of a visit to the city, which lasted several days, during which she witnessed the “absolutely horrific” situation in shelters overcrowded with internally displaced persons, while the influx of civilians fleeing Israeli bombardment continues to reach areas further north .
Cherevko said the fuel shortage remains extremely critical and is impacting life-saving facilities, including hospital equipment and water and sanitation facilities.
She noted that water pumps had stopped at one of the sites she visited on Wednesday due to fuel shortages, adding that unless the situation changes, allowing more fuel into the Strip and allowing humanitarian organizations to retrieve fuel from their stores, more facilities will inevitably shut down .
Speaking at the daily press briefing, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric confirmed that a UN team’s attempt to recover fuel from Rafah had succeeded, with approximately 280,000 liters being transported to a more accessible location in Deir al-Balah. However, he reminded reporters that fuel has not entered the Strip for 110 days .
Quoting the OCHA office, he said: “While this buys some time, it is far from enough to continue life-saving operations. Fuel purchased from abroad must be allowed into Gaza. Unless this happens very soon, hospitals, ambulances, desalination plants, telephone networks and other vital services will cease to function . ”
The OCHA spokesperson said that people in Gaza constantly risk their lives “trying to find something to eat or being left with the choice of dying of starvation,” as the aid allowed into the Strip by the Israeli occupation remains extremely limited .
Cherevko relayed a story from a citizen who told her that she and a friend who was nine months pregnant went there hoping to find some food in any of the areas where humanitarian distributions might be taking place, but their extreme fear prevented them from reaching it .
“Incidents in which people are killed and injured just waiting for food – hoping to find something to feed their children – are horrific and completely unacceptable,” Cherevko said .
A UN team on Wednesday visited Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, which is “struggling to stay operational under constant pressure and with severe shortages of almost everything,” according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. They saw “hundreds of victims, including many who were attacked while waiting for food . ”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Nasser Hospital is hosting twice the number of patients it can handle, adding that it cannot expand its capacity because it needs ventilators, monitoring equipment, beds, and staff to operate .
Dujarric said the organization was able to deliver a minimum amount of fuel to the hospital to operate its backup generators.
He stressed that the food security situation continues to deteriorate because the aid entering is “totally insufficient to meet people’s needs.”
He said the only way to address the situation is to allow the flow of aid, without restrictions and on a sustainable basis, and to enable humanitarian workers to deliver it safely to alleviate the suffering in Gaza .
Meanwhile, Cherevko said that violent Israeli attacks continue throughout the Gaza Strip. She added that five consecutive bombs were dropped on the Shuja’iyya area during the UN team’s visit to a shelter for displaced persons, adding that such attacks continue to terrorize residents .
“Many of them are used to it, and in fact they have decided at this point that they would rather die wherever they are than move to another area, because many of those areas they end up moving to are also being bombed, ” she said .
Meanwhile, Dujarric said that efforts to repair the damaged fiber optic cable in Gaza have been hampered, causing a major communications outage for the third consecutive day.
He confirmed that the Israeli occupation authorities had initially agreed today, but had obstructed the movement of a team sent to locate the cut in the fiber optic cable .
He added that the outage is affecting central and southern Gaza, and until the problem is resolved, “people will be deprived of life-saving information about where to get assistance, and our humanitarian teams will remain unable to coordinate and move safely in Gaza . ”
The UN spokesman also noted that no shelter materials have been allowed into Gaza since March 1, and that tents, wood, tarpaulins, and any other shelter materials remain prohibited .
“Almost all of Gaza’s population has been displaced multiple times during this war, and shelter conditions are deteriorating even more rapidly. Temporary accommodation is concentrated in bombed-out schools, public squares, and urban rubble, often far beyond their capacity, and clearly lacks any basic infrastructure, ” he said.
He added that the United Nations and its partners have approximately 980,000 shelter materials, including 50,000 tents, ready to enter the Strip as soon as permission is granted.
