The ongoing Israeli airstrikes at Gaza took a total of 217 lives.
The ongoing Israeli airstrikes at Gaza took a total of 217 lives. These included 16 elderly, 36 women, and 63 children. It also left around 1500 Palestinians wounded and 52,000 displaced. These attacks were launched at densely populated places which solely contributed to the displacement of 40,000 families. Hundreds of commercial and public health were either levelled to the ground or destroyed, including Gaza’s only Covid-19 testing centre, 20 local media offices, and the international media outlet.
The Gaza strip on Monday witnessed one of Israel’s most monstrous acts, which raised the death toll of civilians to over 200 people by the 18th of May, 2021, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health-Gaza. The Ministry further called for immediate help as it could not cater to the increasing number of injured people being rushed in, and had to stop its covid-19 testing and vaccination services due to its destruction of health facilities.
As all this comes amidst a deadly pandemic with the doctors fearing a spike in the region owing to people fleeing their homes in the middle of the night and taking shelter within the same space, the Al-Rimal Health Clinic, which is Gaza’s only Covid-19 testing lab, was levelled to the ground.
According to Learke, a spokesperson at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA) in Geneva, a total of 132 buildings have been razed to the ground and nearly 316 of them destroyed. This includes 6 hospitals, 9 public health care centres, and a desalination plant that provided water to around 2,50,000 people.
Israeli aggression has nearly ravished 450 civilian buildings so far, including Gaza’s International Network Office from where first-hand news about the region would be transmitted. Aljazeera reported the damage of most of its equipment and its Journalists carrying the work from the streets. OCHA also mentioned the displacement of 52,000 Palestinians of which 47,000 have taken shelter at various UN-run schools.
Amnesty International (AI), the international NGO founded in 1961 that publicizes human rights abuse by governments, has called for an investigation of Israel’s attacks. According to Amnesty, it seems to have committed war crimes.
It stated that “Israeli forces have displayed a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian Civilians by carrying out a number of airstrikes targeting residential buildings…and causing destruction to civilian properties.” While the world watches Palestine collapse, it seems to be the deadliest strikes since the Palestine-Israel war of 2014 that took over 2,000 lives.