Relentless bombing of Khan Younis enters 8th day

For more than a week now, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have carried out bloody massacres against civilians in the central Gaza Strip region of Khan Younis.

As the genocidal war on the enclave is entering 10 months, the Israeli military has been pounding the central Gaza Strip with bombs for eight consecutive days.

Despite having declared victory in Khan Younis earlier this year and withdrawing its forces, the IOF has committed deadly assaults on civilians with graphic images of injured children reaching hospitals that are functioning on basic supplies.

The southern region of Gaza has also not been excluded from the bombardment and war crimes that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people, some on the move once again for the ninth time in ten months. The IOF blew up Rafah’s main drinking water tank, according to Israeli media.

The regular assaults on sites where civilians had sought shelter have raised the number of fatalities and injuries.

Reports on the ground said on Monday that the city of Khan Younis is facing increasingly intense Israeli aggression by land, air, and sea.

Israeli tanks have reportedly targeted the Sheikh Nasser neighborhood in the city, and Israeli artillery bombarded its eastern areas.

Palestinian media reported that in one ground attack alone, five civilians have been killed and several others injured after Israeli artillery shells struck a roundabout east of Khan Younis.

The IOF demolished residential buildings in the town of al-Qarara north of the city on Monday, and artillery shells fell on the towns of Bani Suhaila, Sheikh Nasser, and al-Qarara east of Khan Younis.

Local Palestinian sources said the IOF shelled the minaret of the al-Radwan Mosque in the town of Khaza’a east of Khan Younis, destroying it.

In the central Gaza Strip, reporters noted that Israeli warplanes bombed agricultural land around an intersection south of Deir al-Balah and also shelled the east of the city.

Furthermore, artillery shelling targeted northwest of the al-Nuseirat camp in the central region.

In Gaza City, Palestinian Civil Defense confirmed in a brief statement that Israeli forces and their vehicles are still present in the Tal al-Hawa area southwest of the city, specifically around the Jordanian Hospital, revealing that they are conducting operations that involve the razing of homes and kidnapping and killing residents.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the Israeli aggression has risen to 39,363 deaths and 90,923 injuries since October 7, 2023.

Medical officials in northern Gaza have warned of a widespread outbreak of skin diseases in the Strip, particularly among children, caused by a skin infection.

Officials have also warned of a new virus causing polio in the central governorate of the Gaza Strip, saying the virus is related to contamination from sewage due to the shelling by the IOF.

The health ministry is working with UNICEF to understand the causes of a possible polio epidemic.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Education announced in a statement that 10,000 students and 400 teachers from the Gaza Strip have been killed due to the ongoing Israeli genocide since October last year.

The ministry indicated that “39,000 high school students from the Gaza Strip did not sit for the high school exams this year.” It added, “Since October 7, 2023, 630,000 school students and 88,000 university students in the Strip have been unable to exercise their natural right to education”.

Critics accuse the world of continuing to stand by and watch the genocide in Gaza.

(Tehran Times)