Gaza: At least 21 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others wounded in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Civil Defense in Gaza said.
Nine people, including children and women, were killed when Israeli warplanes attacked a residential house in the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Xinhua.
Three young men were killed and four others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian gathering on the outskirts of the Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, Basal said.
Besides, nine people, including a girl and a woman, were killed in Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling targeting homes, a school, and tents housing displaced persons in Khan Younis city in southern Gaza, Deir al-Balah city and the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, and the Shuja’iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City, the spokesperson added.
The Israeli army has not commented on these incidents yet.
Israel halted the entry of goods and supplies into Gaza on March 2, following the expiration of the first phase of a January ceasefire agreement with Hamas. It resumed attacks on Gaza on March 18, which, according to data released by health authorities in Gaza on Thursday, have so far killed 2,651 Palestinians and injured 7,223.
Amid the Israeli blockade, Khalil Al-Daqran, spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, said Thursday in a statement that many wounded could face “a death sentence” as hospitals in Gaza “are unable to accommodate” them due to “a severe shortage of medicines” out of the blockade.
Also on Thursday, the Civil Defense in Gaza said in a press statement that 75 percent of its vehicles have stopped operating due to the depletion of fuel amid the Israeli blockade and attacks, apart from “a severe shortage of generators and oxygen devices.”
The UN has already warned of an impending humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, reporting increasing signs of acute hunger, particularly among children. The situation is rapidly deteriorating as the U.S.-based food relief organization World Central Kitchen announced Wednesday that it would halt cooking in Gaza due to the depletion of humanitarian supplies, forcing the closure of most community kitchens in the enclave after running out of stock.
UNI XINHUA
