Like other countries and regions in the Middle East, Eid al-Adha was celebrated in the Palestinian Gaza Strip on June 6. The following day, on June 7, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 75 people and injured about 100 others across the Strip. The information was reported by the Gaza Civil Defense Department on Sunday.
Sixteen of the dead were members of the same family, including six children. The family lived in the Sabra area of Gaza City, the main and central city of Gaza.
Mahmoud Bassel, a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense Department, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli air force did not issue any warning signals or sirens before the airstrikes. He added that at least 85 people were trapped under the rubble in Saturday’s attack. It has not yet been possible to rescue them.
“It was a cold-blooded massacre. All of those killed on Saturday were civilians, including several women and children,” Gaza City resident Hamed Kehil told Al Jazeera. “Other years, we would wake up early in the morning, dress ourselves and our children in new clothes, and go visit our friends and relatives. This time, we are carrying the bodies of our children and relatives. We woke up in the early hours of yesterday morning to the sounds of attacks, destruction and screams.” “Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister) must answer to God for what the Israeli forces have done in Gaza for almost two years,” another Gaza City resident, Hassan Alkhor, told Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Saturday night that the aim of their operation was to assassinate a Hamas leader named Asad Abu Sharia. Assad Abu Sharia was the head of the Mujahideen Brigade, part of Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassem Brigades, and participated in the ambush that Hamas carried out on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Earlier, on the day of Eid, that is, June 6, Israeli forces shelled various areas in the Gaza Strip throughout the day, killing at least 42 people.
On October 7, 2023, fighters from Hamas, the armed political group that controls the Gaza Strip, entered Israeli territory and carried out an ambush. They killed 1,200 people indiscriminately and took 251 hostages.
Israeli forces began an operation in Gaza that day to respond to Hamas’ attack and free the hostages. Since then, in the past 17 months, 54,677 Palestinians have been killed and 125,530 injured in the Israeli military operation in Gaza. 56 percent of these dead and injured are women and children.
In addition to carrying out a terrible military operation, the Israeli army has not allowed food and relief vehicles to enter Gaza since last March. As a result, the Palestinians in Gaza are living in hell due to the horrors of the war and the lack of food, drinking water, and medicine.
At least 35 of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas fighters are believed to be still alive. The IDF has announced that they will be rescued through a military operation.
The United Nations and the international community have called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the military operation in Gaza several times. A genocide case has already been filed against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), known as the UN court.
However, Netanyahu has made it clear that the goal of this operation is to completely weaken and disable Hamas and free the hostages, and that the operation will continue in Gaza until the goal is achieved.
Meanwhile, the United States recently presented a proposal for a two-month ceasefire in Gaza. Although Netanyahu agreed to that proposal, Hamas has not yet approved it.
Source: Al Jazeera