Israeli forces killed at least 17 people early Tuesday in attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the site of a recent operation in which Israel’s military massacred more than 270 Palestinians to rescue four hostages.
Reporting from central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said it has “been another bloody night” in the area, noting that Israeli forces attacked two homes in Nuseirat that were “accommodating displaced families who had recently evacuated from Rafah.”
“The first strike killed 10 people, including women and children. Five of them were from the same family. We’re looking at double the number of injuries. More people are still trapped under the rubble,” Mahmoud added. “An hour later, the second attack targeted another family’s home. The victims include not only the parents and their children, but also the grandparents.”
“Another day, another Israeli war crime,” Progressive International co-founder Yanis Varoufakis wrote in response to the strikes.
Overnight Israel bombed two homes in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least 17 people pic.twitter.com/4MJgEJGMmQ
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 18, 2024
The attacks came after an Associated Press investigation detailed how Israel’s relentless, U.S.-backed bombardment of Gaza is wiping out entire Palestinian families. Examining 10 deadly Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip between October and December, the outlet found that “in no case was there an obvious military target or direct warning to those inside.”
“In one case,” AP added, “the family said they had raised a white flag on their building in a combat zone.”
The analyzed strikes killed more than 500 people from several families, AP found. “Nearly every Palestinian family has suffered grievous, multiple losses,” the outlet observed. “But many have been decimated, particularly in the first months of the war.”
The Israeli military carried out Tuesday’s strikes on Nuseirat less than two weeks after killing at least 274 Palestinians in an operation at the refugee camp that rescued four hostages taken during the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said last week that the number of Palestinian civilians killed during the Israeli operation “seriously calls into question whether the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution — as set out under the laws of war — were respected by the Israeli forces.”
The attacks on Nuseirat came amid Israel’s continued assault on Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that more than a million people have fled in recent weeks in the face of an Israeli ground invasion that has further imperiled efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to starving Palestinians.
According to Reuters, residents of the city reported “heavy bombardments from tanks and planes in several areas” on Tuesday. One resident, identified by Reuters as a father of six, told the news agency that “Rafah is being bombed without any intervention from the world, the occupation is acting freely here.”
Another resident, who was displaced to central Gaza, said that with every “hour of delay, Israel kills more people.”
“We want a cease-fire now,” he added. “Enough of our blood, I say it to Israel, America, and our leaders too. The war must stop.”
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