▲ In the picture on the left, the Al Mawasi camp in Yan Junis, after yesterday’s bombing. Above, Palestinian children flee from artillery in the shelter for displaced people.Afp Photo
AFP and Europa Press
The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, July 14, 2024, p. 17
Gaza. At least 90 people were killed and more than 300 wounded yesterday when Israel attacked the Al Mawasi refugee camp in the province of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, under the pretext that it was targeting two Hamas leaders, Mohammed Deif and Rafah Salame. The offensive was condemned by the United Nations (UN), the Palestinian National Authority, Egypt and Jordan, among other nations.
Israeli occupation artillery also shelled the Al Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, where 20 people were killed in a mosque.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he approved the attack after receiving information satisfactory He also said that the bombing was aimed at Mohamed Deif, head of Hamas’s armed wing and one of Israel’s most wanted senior officials, and Rafah Salameh, commander of brigades in Khan Yunis.
However, he admitted that It is not absolutely certain that Deif and his deputy Salameh were killed and reiterated that the Israeli army “in one way or another (…) would kill all the leaders of the movement.”
Hamas’s second-in-command, Khalil al-Hayya, told Qatari television channel Al Jazeera that Deif was not killed yesterday. The bombing took place in a designated area. safe by Israel, where humanitarian organisations say hundreds of thousands of people were taking refuge. The Gazan Ministry of Health announced that of the 90 Palestinians killed Half of them were women and children.
The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that the Nasser hospital, the nearest one, was not able to treat all the wounded, so many were sent to other health centres in the strip.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry stated that these crimes cannot be accepted under no justification. The United Nations noted that it was a senseless slaughterthe Palestinian National Authority condemned the attack in Al Mawasi and said it is the continuation of a policy of genocidewhile Jordan claimed that it was a new systematic attack against the civilian population.
There were only militiamen
The Israeli army said the bombing took place in a closed zone managed by Hamas and that, according to their information, There were only Hamas terrorists present and no civilians.claims that the Palestinian organization dismissed and described as False arguments that seek to hide the extent of the horrific massacre. The victims of the bombing of Al Mawasi camp were taken to several hospitals in the region.
At Kuwait’s Rafah hospital in the south of the country, director Suhaib al Hams described the situation as real disaster and said that most of the victims had serious injuries. Mahmud Abu Akar said that the bombardment was like a rain of missiles that seemed endless.
Without warning and on civilians
Every time people tried to come closer to rescue others, they attackedhe claimed. There was no warning. They’re kids, kids!Al Hams lamented.
Lazzarini said that “the claim that Gazans can move to ‘safe’ or ‘humanitarian’ areas is false.” In Gaza Nowhere is safe. No one is safe.he added.
Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said 20 people were killed in a bombing of a mosque in the Al Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. The humanitarian situation in the area, which is under a tight Israeli siege, continues to worsen. In a school in the town, 14,000 Gazans share 25 toilets, UNRWA said.
Egypt demands free transit for Palestinians
In this context, Egypt demanded that Israel completely abandon the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing and impose no restrictions on the exit of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip or their entry into the enclave. The attack on October 7, 2023, in which Islamist commandos killed 1,195 people and kidnapped 251 in southern Israel, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, triggered the war between Israel and Hamas.
The Israeli army estimates that 116 people remain captive in Gaza, 42 of whom are believed to have died.
In response, Tel Aviv vowed to annihilate Hamas and launched an offensive that has already killed 38,443 people in Gaza and wounded 88,481, according to the Gazan Ministry of Health.
On the diplomatic front, the mediating countries – Qatar, Egypt and the United States – are continuing their efforts to achieve a truce.
US President Joe Biden said over the weekend that the frame of the ceasefire plan he presented on May 31 had been accepted by Israel and Hamas. There are still some gaps to fillhe added.
