In what has become the bloodiest period since the attack on Gaza commenced on July 8, dozens of men, women and children were killed overnight as Israeli forces besieged the Gaza City suburb of Shuja’iyya.
According to Palestinian health ministry spokesman Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra, upwards of 60 bodies have already been removed from the rubble of homes and apartment buildings in the northern neighborhood, at least 17 of whom are children. More than 200 people are being reported as wounded.
The International Red Cross, which on Sunday negotiated a two-hour “suspension of hostilities” so that medical workers could evacuate the sick and injured, warned that the real death toll is likely higher.
“This sharp increase in the intensity of fighting and the resulting human cost is a matter of grave concern to the ICRC,” said a press statement.
The heavy shelling of civilian homes by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is occurring under the pretext of having to destroy a series of underground tunnels, which are often used for importing embargoed essentials to the occupied territory.
In addition to the attack on Shuja’iyya, IDF forces continued their ground incursions in the north of Gaza and in eastern Khan Younis, as well as overnight in the Middle Area, according to an updated report by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Over 63,173 displaced people are now living in UNRWA shelters across Gaza—nearly 10,000 more than the number of Palestinians made refugees after Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09.
According to Haaretz, IDF officers are referring to the significant escalation in fighting overnight as “taking off the gloves,” saying that “it’s not an operation now, it’s a war.”
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