Israeli attack kills 40 as limited aid reaches northern Gaza | Israel-Palestine Conflicts News
Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip in a series of attacks as they allowed a small amount of aid into the northern part of the enclave, for the first time after more than a month of siege.
Doctors quoted by the Palestinian news agency Wafa said on Friday evening that at least 40 people had died across Gaza since morning, including 24 in the north.
At least six Palestinians were killed when the Fahd al-Sabah school that sheltered the homeless in the Tuffah area was targeted on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera’s team on the ground in Deir el-Balah.
Two local journalists, a pregnant woman and a child, were among the dead. The Israeli military used the common excuse that they meant “terrorists” but did not provide evidence or details.
Five others were killed in the Shujayea neighborhood of Gaza City, while Israeli gunfire killed at least one person in the Zeitoun neighborhood.
The death toll in the Israeli bombing of the tents of displaced people in the so-called “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi south of Gaza in Khan Younis has reached at least nine. A child and two women were among the dead, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the injured.
An Israeli airstrike using a helicopter targeted the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, a major health center in central Gaza. It was the eighth Israeli attack on the area since March.
Al Jazeera’s Maram Humaid, on the ground, reported that at least three people were killed and 26 injured. The attack took place only 20 meters from Al Jazeera’s tent in the area.
On the 400th day of the war on Saturday, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced that at least 43,552 Palestinians had been killed and 102,765 wounded.
The actual death toll is thought to be much higher, with an estimated 10,000 bodies buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings throughout the area.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has criticized that almost 70 percent of people killed in Gaza are children and women.
More than 1,000 health workers and about 12,700 students have been killed. About 86,000 tons of explosives were dropped on Gaza, destroying much of the infrastructure and displacing about 2 million people or about 90 percent of the population.
Aid allowed to Israel far below US target
For the first time in more than a month, since the Israeli army launched a ground offensive in northern Gaza and cut off aid, they allowed a limited amount of freedom to enter the area.
Israel’s military organization in charge of aid planning, COGAT, announced that 11 trucks containing food, water and medical equipment were delivered to distribution centers for the remaining people in Jabalia and Beit Hanoon in the north.
The World Food Program (WFP) of the UN, which was involved in the delivery process, reported that not all the limited aid reached the dumps, with one truck ordered to be evacuated by the Israeli army in Jabalia, the focus of the land attack.
Humanitarian aid is the only means of survival for thousands of families in Gaza. It must be expanded and strengthened.
In October, WFP was only able to deliver less than 30% of what we needed due to restrictions.
🎥 Nour of WFP explains about the problems faced by families. pic.twitter.com/OnLk74pEmm
– World Food Program (@WFP) November 9, 2024
Aid was allowed to flow in, with only a few days left before the deadline given to Israel by the United States, after which the transfer of its weapons to Israel could be affected.
Washington has said Israel must bring at least 350 trucks a day into Gaza carrying aid, a far cry from what Israel now allows and well below the 700 trucks a day aid agencies say the enclave needs.
The independent Famine Review Committee said on Friday, in an unusual warning, that famine is likely to break out in northern Gaza, and urgent action is needed to alleviate the dire situation.
The Israeli military responded that researchers with international organizations “continue to rely on partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests”.
The director of the besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north also raised the alarm about the dire conditions, saying that the facility is full of capacity and many injured people cannot reach the hospital due to the lack of ambulances and the direction of traffic in the region.
“We don’t have medicine and medical supplies,” Hussam Abu Safia told Al Jazeera. “We don’t have surgeons. We only have it [a] a few pediatricians and general practitioners.”
This came at a time when the Israeli army continues to prevent foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip to report on the situation.
Israeli strikes killed at least five journalists in October, and the Israeli military launched a smear campaign against six Al Jazeera journalists reporting in the north, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
“Now there are almost no professional journalists left in the north to cover what international institutions have described as a campaign of genocide,” the statement said.
