15 People Killed In Israeli Airstrikes, Gaza Civil Defence Reports

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes killed 15 people in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday as the Israeli military expanded ground operations into the central city of Deir el-Balah.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that airstrikes on the Al-Shati refugee camp, located west of Gaza City, killed at least 13 people and injured more than 50.

The Al-Shati camp, situated on the Mediterranean coast, shelters thousands of people displaced from northern Gaza in tents and makeshift shelters. Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced at least once during 21 months of ongoing conflict.

Raed Bakr, 30, who lives in the camp with his three children, described hearing “a massive explosion” around 1:40 am on Tuesday (2240 GMT Monday) that destroyed their tent.

“I felt like I was in a nightmare. Fire, dust, smoke, and body parts flying through the air, dirt everywhere. The children were screaming,” Bakr told AFP. His wife was killed last year.

With fuel shortages keeping private vehicles off the roads, neighbours carried some of the wounded on foot. “There were no vehicles or even donkey carts,” Bakr added.

Muhannad Thabet, 33, also from Al-Shati, called it “a night of terror” due to “non-stop air strikes and explosions”. He said he carried a six-year-old child to seek treatment and that Shifa Hospital, once one of Gaza’s largest medical centres, was overwhelmed by the influx of wounded.

Bassal confirmed that two more people were killed in Deir el-Balah, where the Israeli army has announced an expansion of its ground operations and ordered much of the area’s evacuation.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that between 50,000 and 80,000 people live in the Deir el-Balah area, which had previously been considered relatively safe. Around 30,000 are staying in displacement sites.

AFP footage from central Gaza showed a large plume of smoke over Deir el-Balah on Tuesday, with a surveillance drone heard buzzing overhead.

OCHA also noted that nearly 88 percent of the entire Gaza Strip is now either under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarized zones, forcing Gaza’s 2.4 million residents into an ever-shrinking area.