At least 22 Palestinians, including two young children, are among the latest deaths in Israel’s round-the-clock bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, adding to the 72 Palestinians killed over the last 24 hours, medical sources have said.
Ten of those who were killed since dawn on Thursday were in Gaza City, where Israeli forces are currently conducting a siege and launching daily strikes on residential buildings as they prepare a major offensive against the Palestinian group Hamas.
The Times of Israel, citing Israeli military figures, reported that a total of 200,000 Palestinians have already been forced out of Gaza City in recent weeks, in an operation described by rights group Amnesty International on Wednesday as “unlawful and inhumane”.
In an Israeli attack early on Thursday, two Palestinians were killed, including an infant, and several others injured after tents sheltering displaced people were hit near Yarmouk Street in Gaza City.
Another Palestinian child was killed after Israeli forces opened fire in the Bureij camp in central Gaza, a source from al-Awda Hospital told Al Jazeera.
Sources from al-Awda and al-Mahmoudiyah hospitals also reported early on Thursday several deaths and injuries following Israeli shelling of Shujayea district east of Gaza City.
Further south, at least four Palestinians waiting for aid were killed in two separate incidents in Rafah, while one person was killed in Israeli shelling northwest of Khan Younis.
Earlier, Palestinian authorities and medical sources reported at least 72 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza within a 24-hour period on Wednesday.
These figures bring the number of people killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the war to at least 64,718, with 163,859 wounded, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
‘Further compounding genocidal conditions’
Israel accelerated its military campaign on Wednesday, with the army attacking dozens of homes in areas of Gaza City in an attempt to push Palestinians out of the area.
The escalation is accompanied by direct and repeated Israeli warnings to leave Gaza City.
In a statement on Wednesday, Amnesty International urged Israel to “immediately rescind” the mass displacement order, calling it “cruel” and “unlawful”, while warning it it “further compounds the genocidal conditions of life” that Israel is inflicting on Palestinians.
“Amnesty International has repeatedly and unequivocally stated that forcibly displacing Palestinians within the Gaza Strip or deporting them violates international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the statement said.
Heba Morayef, a senior Amnesty official for the Middle East, said the Israeli order “is a devastating and inhuman repeat” of the mass displacement order issued for all of North Gaza in October 2023.
Amnesty said some of those who are trying to flee since the order was issued were unable to do so because they cannot afford transport costs, or fit into the small area designated by Israel for evacuation.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said people are making their way from the area to the southern and central areas of the Strip, “but some people are coming back because they are unable to find a place to stay”.
“So as of this moment, there is no safe place in Gaza, including the ‘humanitarian zone’ designated by Israel. The journey itself, from north to south Gaza, has become a matter of life or death.”
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said it will remain in Gaza City, despite the Israeli order.
In a statement published on X by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the UN organisation said it is “appalled” by Israel’s order, saying the evacuation zone “has neither the size nor scale of services” required to support the displaced people.
“This catastrophe is human-made, and the responsibility rests with us all,” the statement said, while calling for an “immediate ceasefire” and for upholding international humanitarian law.
A woman pushes a man in a wheelchair as Palestinians, displaced by the Israeli military offensive, take shelter in a tent camp on Thursday [Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters]
