Medical sources reported that the number of Palestinian martyrs, as a result of the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since dawn on Tuesday, has risen from 36 to 55, including 19 starving people who were waiting to receive US-Israeli aid.
Sources said that 19 Palestinians were killed and more than 200 others were injured as a result of Israeli artillery shelling and gunfire on those waiting for aid at the Netzarim crossing in the central Gaza Strip.
Eyewitnesses said that "Israeli quadcopter drones fired at people waiting for aid near the Netzarim axis south of Gaza City, while Israeli artillery fired several shells at the hungry, killing and wounding dozens."
They added that the martyrs and wounded were transported to hospitals in the central Gaza Strip and Gaza City via "animal-drawn carts and carried on the shoulders of hungry, exhausted people," all the way to the locations where ambulances were located.
On Sunday, the Government Media Office in Gaza announced that the death toll from US-Israeli aid "traps" had risen to 125 martyrs, 736 wounded, and nine missing since May 27.
In a related development, a medical source at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City reported that 12 Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes on Jabalia al-Balad in the northern Gaza Strip, and their bodies were received at the hospital.
Eyewitnesses said dozens of Palestinians were killed and injured in Israeli shelling that targeted several homes in Jabalia al-Balad.
In Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, three Palestinians were killed when an Israeli drone bombed a tent housing displaced people near Well 19 in the Al-Mawasi area west of the city, according to a medical source.
In the central Gaza Strip, ambulance crews recovered the body of a Palestinian killed in an Israeli airstrike east of the Maghazi camp.
A young Palestinian man also died of his wounds from a previous Israeli attack in the Al-Baraka area, south of Deir al-Balah (central Gaza Strip).
Targeting journalists
For its part, the Government Media Office in Gaza announced in a statement on Tuesday that "the number of martyred journalists has risen to 227 since the beginning of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, following the announcement of the martyrdom of journalist Moamen Mohammed Abu Al-Auf, who worked as a photojournalist for several media outlets."
The media office explained that Abu al-Auf "was martyred along with three paramedics during a humanitarian mission east of Gaza City."
He condemned "in the strongest terms the systematic targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation," calling on the International Federation of Journalists, the Federation of Arab Journalists, and all journalistic components in all countries of the world to "condemn these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in the Gaza Strip."
On Friday, the Government Media Office in Gaza announced that the number of Palestinian journalist martyrs had risen to 226 since October 7, 2023, following the death of journalist Ahmed Qaljah, who succumbed to wounds sustained in an Israeli attack on Saturday.
"Erasing Palestinian life in Gaza"
In the same context, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement on Tuesday: "We are witnessing mounting evidence that Israel is waging a systematic campaign to erase Palestinian life in Gaza."
She added, "Israel's targeting of the educational, cultural, and religious life of the Palestinian people will harm current and future generations and undermine their right to self-determination."
A UN panel of experts, headed by Pillay, said in a report that Israel destroyed more than 90% of school and university buildings and more than half of the religious and cultural sites in Gaza.
She added: "Israeli forces committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing in their attacks on educational facilities. By killing civilians who had sought refuge in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of genocide."
The report concluded that the damage to the Palestinian education system was not limited to Gaza, pointing to increased Israeli military operations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, along with harassment of students and settler attacks there.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has been committing genocide in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and displacement, ignoring international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
The genocide left more than 181,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing. Hundreds of thousands were displaced, and famine claimed the lives of many, including children, as well as widespread destruction.
