Israeli army intensifies attacks on civilians

TEHRAN – The Israeli occupation regime has been bombing the completely sealed Gaza Strip for more than 230 consecutive days. Nevertheless, Israeli warplanes and tanks carried out further massacres of civilians on Saturday. The regime has also intensified its shelling of Rafah in the southernmost part of the Strip.

The regime’s fighter jets continued to bomb Rafah, destroying entire homes in some neighborhoods. The Shoka and al-Jeninah areas in particular were subjected to heavy air strikes and artillery fire.

Reporters on the ground confirmed that the occupation forces are using belts of fire for the first time, in which Israel fires many rockets at a single point in the city center. They said the city center has been subjected to heavy air and artillery attacks at night, resulting in numerous civilian casualties.

According to Al Jazeera, residential buildings near the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah were also hit.

Civilians were killed in air strikes in northern Gaza on Saturday. Local sources confirmed that residents were forced to pull bodies and injured people from under the rubble of a house in the al-Daraj neighborhood.

Bombs that fell on Beit Hanoon in the north of the Gaza Strip killed ten people, including women and children. The Jabalia refugee camp, also in the north, is still under heavy air strikes.

According to local journalists, Israeli forces also attacked a residential building north of the Nusairat refugee camp in central Gaza, while the eastern areas between Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis were subjected to Israeli artillery fire.

Meanwhile, reports describe the humanitarian situation in the north and center of the Gaza Strip as “catastrophic.” Famine is spreading in the region.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned of the impending shutdown of oxygen generators at Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in central Gaza, saying that “the lives of more than 20 newborns are in danger in Gaza due to a lack of fuel.”

The hospital’s medical director said that “a medical crisis will occur if the hospital’s operations are suspended due to a lack of fuel.” He explained that the amount of fuel supplied was not enough for more than a fifth of the medical facility’s needs and stressed: “We need 50,000 liters of fuel in the next few hours to avoid a health disaster.”

Earlier this week, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, who is among senior foreign leaders to make a rare trip to Gaza, condemned what she described as “heartbreaking scenes” and called for “an end to this horror.”

Russell said what she had seen and heard was “heartbreaking,” adding: “(Palestinian children) have endured shelling, casualties and repeated displacement inside Gaza. There is no safe haven for the more than one million children in Gaza.”

The attacks come at a time when the occupying regime is increasingly isolated on the world stage. The United Nations General Assembly and the highest UN courts are currently calling for an end to the indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population in the enclave.

Since October 7, the Israeli military has killed nearly 36,000 people in its relentless bombing campaign. More than 80,200 people have been injured in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The majority of the victims were women and children.

The ministry said on Saturday that at least 46 people were killed and 130 others injured in the last 24-hour reporting period.

Due to the Israeli bombing and invasion of the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, the only land crossing for the few humanitarian aid supplies that have reached the enclave since October has been closed. The crossing to Egypt has now been closed for 17 days.