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Dozens dead in Israel strikes on Gaza; Palestinians say Amnesty 'genocide' declaration comes too late

December 5, 2024 at 1:52 pm

Lifeless body of Abu Zalfa, 3-year-old Palestinian child, who was lost his life in Israeli attack on a Shujaiyye neighbourhood, are brough the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital for funeral process in Gaza City, Gaza on December 05, 2024 [Mahmoud İssa/Anadolu Agency]

The Israeli military killed at least 39 Palestinians in strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight, medics said on Thursday, including at least 20 in an attack that set ablaze tents sheltering displaced families in a crowded camp, Reuters reports.

Residents carried a body wrapped in carpets out of the charred wreckage of the makeshift shelters in Mawasi, near the beach west of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have sheltered for months. Israel calls the area a humanitarian zone and has long told people to go there for their safety.

Mourners said the latest attacks demonstrated that a new declaration from international human rights group, Amnesty International, that Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza – strongly rejected by Israel – had come too late.

Gaza medics said the 20 confirmed dead in the Israeli strike there included women and children. Israel said the strike targeted senior Hamas operatives, whom it did not identify.

READ: Amnesty: Israel committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza

The strike set several large tents ablaze, and the fire was worsened by the explosion of cooking gas canisters and burning furniture of the displaced people. On Thursday, the area was strewn with charred clothing, mattresses and other belongings among the twisted frames of burnt-out shelters.

“We don’t see anyone from the whole world standing by us or helping us in this situation. Let them stop this crazy war that’s against us. Let them stop the war,” said Abu Kamal Al-Assar, a witness at the site.

The attack came on the day Amnesty International released its report saying Israel’s actions in Gaza met the definition of the crime of genocide. Israel strongly rejected that accusation, denouncing Amnesty as a “deplorable and fanatical organisation”.

At a funeral in Khan Yunis, where relatives wept over the white-shrouded bodies of people killed the day before, resident Abu Anas Mustafa called the Amnesty report “a victory for Palestinian diplomacy”, although he said it “came late”.

“It is the 430th day of the war today, and Israel has been carrying out massacres and genocide from the first ten days of the war,” he said.

Other Israeli strikes reported on Thursday hit Gaza City, where medics said an attack destroyed a house where an extended family had taken shelter and damaged two nearby homes, killed at least three people.

The Israeli army says fighters frequently use residential buildings, schools and hospitals for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminate attacks and ignoring the plight of civilians in harm’s way.

In Rafah, near the borders with Egypt, an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians on Thursday, medics said. Three others were killed in a separate air strike in Shujaiya, in eastern Gaza City, they added.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on 7 October, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Since then, it has laid much of the Gaza Strip to waste, forcing nearly the entire 2.3 million population from their homes. Authorities in the Territory say more than 44,500 Gazans have been killed, with thousands of others feared dead under the rubble.

WATCH: Children ‘incinerated’ as Israeli bombs hit Gaza encampment