(The Sydney Morning Herald, 26/10/2023)
Gaza/Jerusalem: Israel stepped up bombings of south Gaza, killing many Palestinians, officials said on Wednesday, as violence flared elsewhere in the Middle East and a showdown loomed at the United Nations over aid for the besieged enclave.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled from north to south in tiny, crowded Gaza after Israel warned them it would bombard mainly the north to wipe out Hamas militants after their cross-border killing and kidnapping spree in Israel on October 7.
Among Wednesday’s casualties, an internally displaced person was killed and 44 were injured in an air strike near an UNRWA school in the southern town of Rafah, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip said.
The school was sheltering 4600 people and sustained severe collateral damage, an UNRWA statement said.
The overall Palestinian death toll now exceeds 6500, the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Wednesday. Reuters has not been able to independently verify the casualty figures of either side in the war.
Israel had told civilians in the northern Gaza Strip, including residents of Gaza City, to move to the south of the enclave, saying it will be safer there as the military attacks Hamas following its October 7 cross-border assault.
However, Israeli warplanes have continued to hit sites in southern Gaza, spreading fear among the evacuees that they are just as vulnerable there as they were in their homes in the north.
Among Wednesday’s casualties, an internally displaced person was killed and 44 were injured in an air strike near a United Nations Relief and Works Agency school in the southern town of Rafah, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip said.
The school was sheltering 4600 people and sustained severe collateral damage, a United Nations Relief and Works Agency statement said.
The overall Palestinian death toll now exceeds 6500, the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Wednesday. Reuters has not been able to independently verify the casualty figures of either side in the war.
Israel had told civilians in the northern Gaza Strip, including residents of Gaza City, to move to the south of the enclave, saying it will be safer there as the military attacks Hamas following its October 7 cross-border assault.
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose