Israeli attacks on declared safe areas add to ‘long list’ of crimes
Sultan Barakat, professor of public policy at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, says Israel’s latest deadly strikes add to a “long list of crimes against humanity in Gaza”.
The “tragedy” of the assaults, which killed dozens of people in Shati and al-Mawasi camps, is that they occurred in areas Israel had declared safe and encouraged people to move into, Barakat told Al Jazeera.
“They are now declaring to target Hamas bases there within that context,” he said.
“None of this can be justified. Even when Israel says it targeted individuals linked to Hamas, the way it targets them – with the size of the bombs – means they 100 percent know it is inevitable, given the density of the camps, that many, many civilians will be killed.”
People make their way through the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli bombardment in the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City on Saturday
69 percent of Gaza’s school shelters damaged during war: UNRWA
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, citing the Global Education Cluster, says 69 percent of all schools sheltering displaced families in Gaza have either been “directly hit or damaged” during the war.
Shelters run by UNRWA, which is the main group providing assistance to displaced people in Gaza, have also been hit repeatedly, according to the agency, killing more than 500 people sheltering in them.
“This blatant disregard of humanitarian law must stop. We need a ceasefire now,” UNRWA said in a post on X.
Nowhere is safe in #Gaza.
According to @GlobalEdCluster, 69% of school buildings where displaced families were seeking shelter have been directly hit or damaged.
This blatant disregard of humanitarian law must stop. We need a #CeasefireNow. pic.twitter.com/izwPNeKOVC
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) June 23, 2024
More aid reaching northern Gaza but no Palestinians able to return from the south: WFP
World Food Programme’s Palestine Country Director Matthew Hollingworth has told Talk to Al Jazeera that while more aid trucks have been reaching the north of Gaza, Palestinians in the south of the Gaza Strip have been unable to return to the north.
Hollingworth said some Palestinians from neighbouring areas have been returning to Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip despite the damage to buildings, sewage and water infrastructure there.
“Jabalia has changed immeasurably just in the past month, since the last time I was there, it is so much more destroyed than it was,” he said. “And yet people are still there. People have returned, in fact, and they are living in the most incredibly difficult circumstances at the moment.”
A Palestinian woman cooks amid rubble in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday
Jordan sends 70 aid trucks to northern Gaza: Report
A Jordanian humanitarian aid convoy consisting of 70 trucks has entered northern Gaza Strip, according to Jordan’s Roya News digital newspaper.
The convoy carried essential food parcels, consumables, medical supplies and medications, the report said, adding that it was sent by the Jordanian army and the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP).
The report quoted the head of JHCO, Hussein Al-Shibli, as saying that “all reports indicating that [Gaza] is nearing famine”.
He said Jordan has sent a total of 2,110 aid trucks and 53 planes since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza “in an attempt to alleviate and halt this tragic situation”.
