On the 150th day of the war on Gaza, the Israeli occupation aircraft intensified its raids on Rafah, leaving martyrs and wounded, in conjunction with bombing that included various areas of the Gaza Strip, while the United Nations renewed its warnings about the death of children from starvation due to the blockade imposed by the occupation on the entry of humanitarian aid.
On the 150th day of the war, the Israeli occupation army continued its aggression against the Gaza Strip and committed a new massacre on Sunday evening in Rafah, killing a number of Palestinian civilians after they had sought refuge there as their last “safe” haven. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Strip announced, on Monday, that the death toll from the war had risen. Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip amounted to "30,534 martyrs and 71,920 injured."
She added that "the Israeli occupation forces committed 13 massacres against families, leaving 124 martyrs and 210 injured, during the past 24 hours."
The Ministry stressed that "a number of victims are still under rubble and on the roads, and the occupation prevents ambulance and civil defense crews from reaching them."
Palestinians were martyred and others, including children, were injured in an Israeli occupation bombing that targeted a house in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, despite international warnings of the danger of launching a military operation against the city crowded with displaced people.
Massacre in Rafah
TRT Arab correspondent Wael Al-Halabi said that Israeli warplanes bombed a house for the Al-Gharib family, completely destroying it on top of its residents, and causing severe damage to the homes of surrounding citizens.
He pointed out that the bombing claimed the lives of 14 Palestinians, including 6 children and a number of women.
In the north, our correspondent said that the occupation aircraft targeted a house for the Radwan family in Jabalia camp, as well as the Engineers Syndicate, while the intensity of bombing on the rest of the areas of the Strip increased at an increasing pace.
He explained that Israeli warplanes also targeted the headquarters of the Palestinian Engineers Syndicate, which next to it includes a school affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA), in the northern Gaza Strip after the evacuation of the displaced people who had taken refuge there.
He pointed out that the bombing caused widespread destruction in the place, and caused a state of terror among the Palestinians inside the school, which includes displaced people.
Our correspondent also reported that the occupation army arrested a number of civilians in Khan Yunis while hearing the sounds of children and women screaming as a result of the state of panic spread by its soldiers.
The occupation intensified its aggression and bombing of Khan Yunis during the past weeks, amid clashes with Palestinian faction fighters, who inflicted heavy losses on its forces.
Targeting a cemetery
At the same time, Ahmed Al-Kahlot, director of the Civil Defense Service in the northern Gaza Strip, said that the Israeli occupation army bombed a mass grave containing the bodies of hundreds of martyrs who were recently buried.
He added: "The bombing destroyed the cemetery and brought out the bodies from under the dirt."
He pointed out that civil defense crews are working hard to rebury the bodies inside the cemetery.
Hunger snatches the lives of children in the Gaza Strip
On the humanitarian level, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adele Khader, warned on Sunday of “an increase in child deaths resulting from drought and malnutrition unless the war in the Gaza Strip ends.”
Khader noted in a statement, “The lives of thousands of children and infants in the Gaza Strip depend on anticipated urgent measures, including security guarantees and unhindered passage, to distribute aid.”
She stressed that "the deaths of children, which we feared would happen, have become a reality, while malnutrition is sweeping the Gaza Strip."
Khader highlighted “at least the ten children who died due to dehydration and malnutrition in Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip in recent days, according to reports.”
“These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable, and entirely preventable,” she added.
Acute malnutrition
According to the United Nations agency, approximately 16 percent - or one in every six children under the age of two - suffer from acute malnutrition in the northern Gaza Strip.
The UNICEF Regional Director said the widespread shortage of nutritious food, clean water and medical services in Gaza is “a direct result of the barriers to access and multiple risks facing UN humanitarian operations.”
On February 19, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that the sharp rise in malnutrition among children and pregnant and lactating women in the Gaza Strip constitutes a “serious threat” to their health, especially with the continuing devastating war on the Strip.
As a result of the war and Israeli restrictions, the population of Gaza, especially the Gaza and northern governorates, is on the verge of famine, in light of a severe scarcity of food, water, medicine and fuel supplies, with the displacement of about two million Palestinians from the Strip, which has been besieged by Israel for 17 years.
The ongoing Israeli war on Gaza has left tens of thousands of victims, most of them children and women, an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive destruction of infrastructure and property, according to Palestinian and UN data, which necessitated Israel’s appearance for the first time since 1948 before the International Court of Justice, on charges of committing crimes of “genocide.”