On the fifteenth day of its aggression against Gaza, the Israeli occupation army continued to bomb residential areas, resulting in more martyrs, while the Hamas movement called on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) not to evacuate 5 schools to shelter displaced persons.
A number of Palestinians were martyred on Friday/Saturday night in bombing carried out by Israeli army aircraft on various areas in the Gaza Strip.
Local sources told the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) that “the bombing targeted several areas in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, resulting in the death of at least 7 citizens and the injury of a number of others, while at least 14 citizens were martyred in a bombing that targeted the town of Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip.”
The sources explained that "two martyrs were killed in a bombing that targeted a three-story house in the Al-Salam neighborhood in Rafah, in addition to 7 people missing in this bombing."
She continued: "Five citizens were martyred, including 3 children, and others were injured in a bombing that targeted a two-story house in the Zoroob roundabout area, west of Rafah. A citizen was also injured in a bombing that targeted a two-story house in the Siamat area, west of Rafah."
In the town of Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, 14 Palestinians were martyred as a result of the aircraft bombing a house in the town.
Demolishing 5,500 buildings
In this context, the head of the government media office in Gaza, Salama Marouf, announced on Friday evening that 5,500 residential buildings, which included 14,200 housing units, had been completely demolished as a result of the bombing launched by Israel on the Strip since October 7.
The statement by the Government Information Office in Gaza explained that Israel "continues to target educational institutions, as 160 schools were subjected to various damages, including 19 schools that were out of service."
He pointed out that "one of the most prominent scenes of aggression over the past twenty-four hours is the destruction of the towers of Madinat al-Zahra and the bombing of the Greek Orthodox Church."
More than 4000 martyrs
For its part, the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced on Friday that the death toll from the Israeli war that has been ongoing since October 7 has risen to more than 4,137 dead, including 1,524 children, and about 13,000 injured.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a press conference that the number of Palestinian casualties in Gaza “rose to 4,137 martyrs, including 1,524 children, 1,000 women, and 120 elderly people.” Al-Qudra added that the number of injured people reached “about 13,000 injured,” noting that there are “more than 1,000 missing people under the rubble of destroyed homes and facilities, most of them children.”
Demands for UNRWA not to evacuate schools
The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas also called on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) not to evacuate 5 schools to shelter displaced persons.
The movement said in a press statement on Friday evening: “We call on the UNRWA administration not to give in to the Israeli threats that demanded the evacuation of 5 schools used as shelters for displaced persons in Gaza City,” according to what Quds Press newspaper reported.
He continued: "We also call on it (UNRWA) to continue carrying out its legal and moral duty to care for those displaced in those schools who have no place or shelter from the occupation's aggression."
The Secretary of the Arab Staff Union in UNRWA, Muhammad Shweidah, said in statements that the Israeli army demanded the evacuation of 5 shelter centers for displaced people in the Gaza Strip.
Shweidah said that the Israeli army "demanded the evacuation of five shelters for displaced persons run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees without explaining the reason for this."
He added that the centers "include hundreds of thousands of displaced people from areas destroyed or threatened by bombing in Gaza, who were displaced due to the ongoing war in the Strip."
Shweidah pointed out that "the officials refused to evacuate because there was no safe place for the displaced people to go to."
For about two weeks, Israel has continued to launch intensive raids on Gaza, leaving thousands of civilians martyred and wounded, and cutting off its supplies of water, electricity, food and medicine, which sparked local and international warnings of a double humanitarian catastrophe, in parallel with intense Israeli raids and arrests in cities and towns of the occupied West Bank.
In response to “daily Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people and their sanctities,” Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza launched Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7, at the beginning of which they stormed Israeli settlements and military sites around the Gaza Strip.
Defense for Children International: 120 children are martyred daily by Israel’s bombing of Gaza
Defense for Children International said that 1,688 Palestinian children have been martyred in the Gaza Strip since October 7 as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombing. The organization warned of a major humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, expecting the actual number of martyrs to exceed the announced number.
Defense for Children International, Palestine Branch, warned on Saturday of a major humanitarian crisis facing the children of the Gaza Strip, and said that 120 Palestinian children are killed every day as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombing of the Strip.
The movement (a human rights organization founded in Geneva) announced in a statement that “1,688 Palestinian children have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, in addition to 27 children in the West Bank.”
She pointed out that "the numbers of martyrs, including children, in the Gaza Strip are infinite, because there are about 1,400 people missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings, which indicates that the actual number of martyrs is much higher than that."
She said: “The children who have so far survived the intense Israeli bombing throughout Gaza are suffering from a major humanitarian crisis, which exacerbates the existing nervous and psychological traumas that have occurred since 16 years of siege and Israeli military attacks on the Strip.”
The movement continued: "The trauma suffered by Palestinian children in Gaza extends beyond personal suffering. Seeing the killing of other children exacerbates their plight, leaving indelible scars on their mental well-being."
She warned that "the annihilation of entire families in the blink of an eye leads to the destruction of the foundations of these families. Children, who used to find safety and comfort in the embrace of their families, have now become orphans."
Defense for Children International (Palestine Branch) was established in 1991, and the Palestinian branch is considered part of the International Coalition for Defense for Children International, which is a human rights organization founded in Geneva in 1979 with the aim of defending children and protecting their rights based on the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Although the coalition is an international network, the Palestinian branch of the movement is considered a Palestinian human rights non-governmental organization that develops its programs and activities based on the needs and priorities of Palestinian children and Palestinian society.
20 trucks of aid enter Gaza, and UNRWA supervises transportation and distribution
Trucks carrying tons of relief aid sent to Gaza crossed the Rafah border crossing in North Sinai in Egypt to enter the besieged Strip, according to what was broadcast on Egyptian state television and confirmed by a security official.
Trucks carrying tons of relief aid sent to Gaza crossed the Rafah border crossing in North Sinai in Egypt to enter the besieged Strip.
Egyptian state television broadcast scenes of trucks carrying Egyptian Red Crescent banners crossing from the crossing, which is the only outlet for the Gaza Strip to the outside that is not supervised by Israel.
The Red Crescent said in a statement, “The first relief convoy includes 20 trucks, and is currently passing through the Rafah crossing.”
It was not immediately clear whether the aid would cover all of Gaza, but a few days ago the Israeli army stipulated that the aid be delivered to “civilians only in southern Gaza.”
Meanwhile, Tamara Al-Rifai, spokeswoman for UNRWA, stressed on Friday the necessity of not imposing conditions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and said that “aid should be provided in all parts of the Strip, where the displaced are located, and where the needs exist.”
For its part, the government media office in Gaza said on Saturday that they are waiting for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which receives the aid, to deliver it to those who need it in various places in the Gaza Strip.
The head of the office, Salama Maarouf, stressed in a press statement the importance of “inaugurating a safe corridor that works around the clock to provide the humanitarian and service needs that are completely missing” in the Gaza Strip.
He said: “In conjunction with the start of the entry of the first limited convoy of basic needs through the Rafah crossing, we are waiting for UNRWA - as the receiving party - to carry out its duty in directing these needs to those who deserve them in various places in the Gaza Strip.”
He added: "We warn that this limited convoy will not be able to change the humanitarian catastrophe that the Gaza Strip is experiencing."
For days, Egypt has accused Israel of obstructing the entry of aid into Gaza by bombing the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, denying that the crossing was permanently closed, before Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the American Joe Biden reached an agreement on Wednesday/Thursday night to pass aid.