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18-08-2024
GAZA CITY: The Israeli military has bombed a warehouse sheltering displaced Palestinians in the az-Zawayda area of central Gaza, martyring 15 members of one family, including nine children.
The civil defence spokesman in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, said on Saturday that 15 people killed in the overnight attack were members of the Ajlah family, with three women among the dead. The total death toll from the attack was 16.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, journalist Tareq Abu Azzoum said three Israeli missiles hit the warehouse, located a few kilometres south of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
“A massive fire broke out, burning everything in the warehouse as children were torn to pieces. Rescue efforts are still continuing to try to recover more bodies,” he said.
“There is a great level of frustration and grief. The bodies are now being lined up at Al-Aqsa Hospital’s morgue as the family gets ready to bury them.”
The attack struck the Alijla family, killing its patriarch, Sami, along with his wife, mother and all of his children, according to Abdalhadi Alijla, a cousin of the victims.
Alijla described Sami as an “honorable man” who ran a small business in the frozen meat industry and was active in charitable efforts, stressing that the family was not politically involved.
He added that the family had fled Gaza City to the warehouse, which Sami owned for his business, in az-Zawayda.
Speaking to media from Stockholm, Alijla relayed accounts of hardships that the rest of his family is suffering, including lack of access to food and hygiene products. He called the situation in Gaza “hell on earth”.
“We are talking (about) literally a gradual genocide, a slow motion genocide, not only by killing, but also using other tools… including scarcity of food,” he said.
The attack took place after international mediators, the United States, Qatar and Egypt wrapped up ceasefire negotiations in Doha on Friday that they described as “serious and constructive”, aimed at ending the war and seeing the release of Israeli captives in Gaza for Palestinians jailed in Israel.
“What have they done to deserve this?” Ahmed Abu al-Ghoul, a local who witnessed Israel’s latest assault, told media.
Journalist Abu Azzoum reported more air attacks mainly on residential houses in the enclave, with one of them killing at least seven Palestinians from the same family on the western side of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
“We are observing that the latest Israeli strikes have been wiping out whole families,” he said.
Israel issued yet another round of evacuation orders on Saturday, this time for neighborhoods in central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp.
The Israel military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, made the announcement in a social media post, listing blocks in Maghazi, as well as several other neighborhoods in central Gaza, from which residents should flee.
He said Palestinian group Hamas had fired rockets from the areas and Israel’s military would respond “forcefully”.
“For your own safety, move immediately to the humanitarian zone,” Adraee said.
It is the third time Israel has ordered more Gaza neighborhoods to evacuate in as many days, displacing tens of thousands of people.
Abu Azzoum said families are fleeing to Deir el-Balah, an area that is “already overwhelmed with displaced families”. The “humanitarian zone is shrinking”, he added. Israeli forces also ordered people to flee the vicinity of Beit Hanoon, a city in northern Gaza. (Int’l News Desk)
