A barrage of Israeli rockets raided down on the Gaza Strip for the sixth consecutive day of violence, wiping out entire neighborhoods and killing dozens of Gazans.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, the Israeli army announced it had launched “a large-scale strike” on the besieged city in an attempt to back militant group Hamas into a corner following an unprecedented incursion by the group on Saturday.
At least 22 people were killed in the overnight Israeli raids on Gaza, an international newspaper reported, citing local media.
Israeli air strikes on a house in the city of Jabalia, north of Gaza have killed at least 15 people on Thursday morning.
The Israeli navy also launched bombs on the Palestinian refugee camp al-Shati, or Beach camp, in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian health ministry had announced on Thursday that the death toll in its territories has risen to more than 1,229, with over 5,600 injuries. At least 1,200 Israelis have died and more than 2,700 people were injured, the Israeli military said.
About 340,000 people in Gaza were left with nowhere no to go as a result of Israel’s continuous bombardment of the city, according to the United Nations.
“Mass displacement across the Gaza Strip continues,” the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Thursday.
Israel enforced a “complete siege” of the Palestinian territory, preventing food and fuel from reaching the impoverished city.
The densely populated enclave is home to 2.3 million people, most of whom are children. About 80 percent of Gazans had been living in poverty before the latest Israeli violence.
The Palestinian Red Crescent has warned that if the ban on fuel continues, ambulance services in the besieged city would have to stop services within four days, leaving Gazans without health services amid ongoing shelling.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) told an international newspaper that the situation in Gaza is “catastrophic.”
“The situation is catastrophic. Gaza is on the brink of running out of food, water, and electricity,” Alia Zaki, the Head of Communications and Information Management at the Palestine Country Office for the UN’s World Food Program, said.
The damaged infrastructure has severely impeded food production and distributions at shops and bakeries monitored by the WFP, Zaki explained.
“Half of the shops and bakeries monitored by WFP will run out of food within one week. And for those still operating, frequent electricity cuts bring the threat of food spoilage,” she said. Barrage of Israeli rockets continue on Gaza Strip for sixth consecutive day
