Around 50 Palestinians were killed and scores wounded over two days as Israeli warplanes and drones pounded densely populated shelters, homes and schools across the Gaza Strip, escalating what international bodies have called a humanitarian catastrophe.
The latest barrage struck at dawn Friday, killing 19 civilians, most of them in Khan Younis and Jabalia.
Among the dead were children, women and entire families taking refuge in displacement tents.
One airstrike on the al-Nazla area in Jabalia killed five people, including a child, with no warning, residents said.
In southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, multiple strikes throughout the day left 14 dead.
Israeli jets targeted tents housing displaced families in al-Mawasi, killing at least five, including three women and a child and injuring over 20.
A separate drone strike hit the Hanawi School, killing a woman and her son, and wounding nine.
Another deadly strike flattened a home in the western Khan Younis camp area, killing two more civilians.
At the same time, Israeli forces ramped up demolitions of homes in the city’s east while shelling its northern and southern outskirts.
The Thursday death toll alone stood at 30, according to medical officials.
That morning, Israeli forces shelled Jabalia, killing three, then launched a wave of strikes across central and northern Gaza.
In Gaza City, three people – including the parish priest of the Holy Family Catholic Church – were killed when warplanes bombed the church compound in Zeitoun, which was sheltering hundreds.
Elsewhere in Zeitoun, four civilians were killed in an apartment strike.
In central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp, five Palestinians – including women and children – were killed in drone strikes on displacement tents.
Further north, Israeli attacks killed four civilians near the al-Saftawi roundabout and another man in the al-Daraj neighborhood near the Al-Sahaba Medical Complex.
Artillery rounds also struck tents near the Sheikh Radwan reservoir, injuring several, while a child was killed near Itta Station in al-Mawasi.
At Al-Hannawi School in Khan Younis, one civilian died in another air and artillery attack on what had served as a shelter.
Since Israel began its military campaign following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, incursion on southern Israel, nearly 59,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Thursday and Friday’s tolls only added to the rising count in a war that has devastated Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, triggered famine conditions, and created an epidemic of disease.
International outrage is mounting.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes.
Meanwhile, Israel is also defending itself at the International Court of Justice (ICF) against genocide charges.
Yet, despite mounting calls for a cease-fire, Israeli strikes continue to level neighborhoods, destroy shelters and claim the lives of those who had nowhere left to run.
