RAMALLAH: The Palestinian death toll in the besieged Gaza Strip has reached 30,320, the territory’s Health Ministry said in a press statement on Saturday. During the past 24 hours, the Israeli army killed 92 Palestinians and injured 156 others, bringing the total death toll to 30,320 and injuries to 71,533 since Israel launched bombardment in Gaza on October 7, 2023, according to the statement.
Among the recent casualties, 15 persons tragically killed in Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah following an Israeli airstrike targeting two residential buildings. Additionally, two others were killed in a separate airstrike on a house in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
The toll of Israeli air raids extended to various neighborhoods in Gaza City, including Al-Zaytoun, Tal Al-Hawa, Al-Sabra, and Al-Daraj, resulting in the deaths of ten people.
Eyewitnesses reported a distressing incident in the northern Gazan town of Beit Hanoun, where a group of people gathering herbs to alleviate hunger became the targets of Israeli artillery shelling. Three Palestinians were killed, while seven others sustained injuries in the Israeli air strike.
Further south in Rafah, an Israeli drone strike on a civilian vehicle in the Al-Shaboura neighborhood two Palestinians, with another person wounded in the attack. The injured were immediately transported to the Kuwaiti Hospital for medical treatment.
10 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Strike in Rafah
At least 10 Palestinian people were killed by a deadly Israeli airstrike on Saturday that hit a tent in the Rafah region of the besieged Gaza Strip, the territory’s health ministry said.
The airstrike struck an area where displaced Palestinians had sought refuge, located outside the Emirate Hospital in the suburb of Tel Al-Sultan in southern Gaza’s Rafah region.
Among the casualties was a medic employed at the hospital, highlighting the tragic toll of the attack on both civilians and medical personnel. The Israeli military has not yet issued a response regarding the incident.
Earlier, the United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, on Thursday warned that any planned ground assault on Rafah in the Gaza Strip would defy orders issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). “I fail to see how such an operation could be consistent with the binding provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice,” Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council.
Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council, Turk expressed grave concerns about the potential ramifications of such a military operation.
Turk condemned the prospect of an Israeli ground assault on Rafah, emphasizing that it would exacerbate the already dire situation faced by Gaza’s populace. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously announced intentions for a ground invasion of Rafah, where approximately 1.4 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge amidst the ongoing conflict.
Moreover, aid agencies have issued warnings regarding the looming spectre of famine in Gaza’s densely populated northern regions.
