The Gaza Strip suffered its deadliest day in 15 years following the response of Israel to an unprecedented attack of Hamas, to which he responded with aerial bombardments that killed almost 300 Palestinians in 24 hours.
At least 260 bodies have been recovered by Israeli emergency services of the desert area near the Gaza Strip where hundreds of young people celebrated a electronic music festival early Saturday morning, when the terrorist group Hamas burst in shooting.
A spokesperson for ZAKAa group of volunteers that is responsible for recovering human remains after attacks and other disasters, confirmed this Sunday to Israeli media that so far they have been collected more than 260 bodies from the placelocated near the kibbutz Reimin the south of Israel and close to Gaza.
Israel’s top military spokesman called the attack by Hamas fighters, who killed at least 700 Israelis and kidnapped dozens, “the worst massacre of innocent civilians in Israel’s history” and the response has been correspondingly harsh.
The Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has reported 370 Palestinians killed so far and another 2,200 injured, of whom almost 300 died on Saturday, the highest number of Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israeli strikes in a single day since 2008.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “revenge with all power for this evil day.”
In Gaza, Sabreen Abu Daqqa, who was unearthed from the rubble of attacked homes in Khan Younis, woke up in the hospital to the news that three of her children had died, two of them had been injured, and the fate of one sixth was not clear.
“Everything collapsed on top of us. My children were around me,” he said in a weak voice at the hospital. She called out to her children from under the rubble, but got no answer. “They started removing the rubble from me little by little. It took three hours,” she said.
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza began shortly after the Hamas incursion and continued overnight and into Sunday, destroying the group’s offices and training camps, as well as homes and other buildings.
Abu Daqqa and residents of three other homes destroyed in the airstrikes said they had not received any prior warning from Israel, noting that this was different from previous rounds of bombing in which Israeli security forces had called residents to tell them to evacuate before an attack.
The Israeli military, which regularly accuses Hamas of deliberately operating in residential and other civilian buildings, declined to comment.
AIR STRIKES
The Israeli military has stated that its warplanes have destroyed 800 militant targets in the Gaza Strip to date. Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas government’s media office, rejected it as a “cover to justify the occupation’s aggression against civilian people and property.”
In the city of Rafah, adjacent to the Egyptian border, an Israeli airstrike killed 12 members of the Abu Qouta family, their relatives said. Seven other family members are believed to be under the rubble, they added.
The Gaza Strip, home to some two million people, has been run by Hamas since it took control of the territory in 2007. Its economy has long been suffocated by a blockade imposed by Israel with the help of Egypt.
When the airstrikes began on Saturday, thousands of Palestinians living near the border with Israel fled their homes.
UNRWA, the UN agency that provides essential services to Palestinians, said at least 70,000 Palestinians have taken refuge in 64 of the schools it runs in the Gaza Strip, and the number is likely to rise as the fighting continues. intense bombing and airstrikes, including in civilian areas.
In a statement, UNRWA said two children, both students at UN-run schools in Khan Younis and Beit Hanoun, had been confirmed dead. Three UNRWA schools suffered “collateral damage” caused by Israeli airstrikes, he added.
“Civilians must be protected at all times, including during fighting. UNRWA supports calls for an immediate ceasefire and cessation of violence everywhere,” UNRWA said.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, said hospitals had been overwhelmed and were relying on worn-out generators for electricity after Israel on Saturday cut off the 120 megawatts it supplies to the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz declared on Saturday that Israel would cut off power to the Gaza Strip, declaring that “what has been so far will no longer be,” indicating that Israel views the attack as a game-changer. of the rules. (Reporting by Nidal Almughrabi Edited in Spanish by Javier López de Lérida)
Source: Ambito
