By Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi: Israel intensified its onslaught on the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Saturday, killing at least ten members of a Palestinian family including five children. With this fresh Israeli bombardment on the fifth day of Israeli aggression, the death toll rose to 139 including 39 children and 22 women and 1000 others wounded.
Quoting the Ministry of Health in Gaza, a Palestinian embassy official in New Delhi told Muslim Mirror that the Israeli warplanes targeted residential areas across the besieged enclave and ten members of Abu Hatab family including five children were killed.
The air strike hit the overcrowded al-Shati refugee camp without early warning, leaving at least 20 people wounded, with the death toll expected to rise, health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qedra said.
Rescue teams continue searching for victims under the rubbles of the four-storey house, where several families lived.
Spokesperson Al Qedra has put the death toll at 139 including 39 children and 22 women since the start of the Israeli aggression. He said they have 40 critical cases in intensive care units in different Gaza hospitals.
Hospitals and medical professionals in Gaza have been struggling to cope with the rising number of casualties.
The General Authority for Healthcare, an executive arm of the Egyptian Ministry of Health, said the wounded were expected to soon arrive in Egypt. The authority’s head, Ahmed al-Sobki, said three major health facilities in Ismailia were ready to receive Gaza’s victims.
Alleging that the Israeli occupation has been committing heinous crimes against the Palestinian people, Al Qedra said the health ministry sent a message to the international community of the necessity to curb the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
We monitor these violations against Palestinian families, and this is a blatant violation and Israel does not fill in international laws and covenants, Al-Qedra said.
He also alleged that “the enemy (Israel) focused directly on defenseless citizens.
The international institutions must fulfill their duties in order to stop the Israeli aggression and criminalize the occupation in international courts, he added.
Palestinians have been protesting over the past week, in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah residents and the attacks and restrictions by Israeli forces on al-Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan.
The unrest has escalated in the course of the week into violent confrontations between Palestinian citizens of Israel and far-right Jewish Israelis in different mixed cities in Israel.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian religious affairs ministry said Israeli planes destroyed the Qalibu mosque.
Israel must be moved somewhere in America or europe