Israeli military hits dozens of targets in Gaza as Eid begins
Israeli air attacks struck dozens of targets in Gaza including “military sites, launchers, tunnel shafts, and infrastructure”, the military said in its latest war update.
Sites in Jabalia and Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood were hit from where it determined strikes towards Israel or Israeli troops were carried out, according to the army. The latest attacks also targeted several “terrorist cells” killing numerous Palestinian fighters, it said.
Israel’s strikes on Gaza at the end of Ramadan also resulted in a heavy civilian toll, including the killing of at least four children in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to rescuers.
‘Stench of death is everywhere’ after Israel’s attack on al-Shifa Hospital
A nurse at the destroyed health facility in northern Gaza continues to search for her husband after he was arrested by Israeli forces during their siege. Maha Sweylem says she hasn’t seen her husband, Dr Abdel Aziz Kali, since he was detained and doesn’t know if he’s dead or alive.
She recalled how the Israeli army surrounded the hospital last month and then used loudspeakers to order “everyone must surrender. Game over.” “Then they started shooting at all the entrances, preventing anyone from moving. I spent four days there with my two little daughters without any food or drink. They cried from hunger. When they arrested my husband, he had not eaten for three days.”
Motasem Salah, director of the Gaza Emergency Operations Centre, said the scenes at the sprawling medical centre are “unbearable”. “The stench of death is everywhere”, he said, as a digger went through the rubble and rescue workers pulled decomposed bodies from the sand and ruins.
‘Massive destruction’ in Khan Younis; homes just rubble and rocks
In the city of Khan Younis, the destruction is massive. We have been talking to people, and we have been going with them to their houses. They say there is nothing left. There’s no infrastructure, there’s no electricity, and there’s no water. Everywhere is rubble and rocks.
The second thing is they do not trust the Israeli forces to not invade Khan Younis again, just like they did in the north in Gaza City, where they stormed al-Shifa Hospital after they withdrew from the area.
Still, people are coming back, trying to take whatever is left from their houses – some clothes, some blankets. Everyone is telling us they do not recognise their houses. They’re all very depressed from the amount of destruction in their city. They’re saying they can’t go back because there’s simply no houses. If the house was not bombed, it was burned down. If it’s not burned, it’s damaged.
Death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza hits 33,482
The number of killed in Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip has reached 33,482 with 76,049 wounded, the Palestinian territory’s Health Ministry says. The casualty toll rose after 122 people were killed and 56 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.
About 14,500 children and 9,500 women have been killed. Israel says it has killed about 12,000 Palestinian fighters since the war began in October. The death toll is likely far higher as an estimated 8,000 people are missing and presumed buried in the debris of bombed buildings.