Monitors from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory condemned what the office described as an increase in Israeli attacks as families prepared to observe one of Islam’s most important holidays.
The office said 12 Palestinians were killed in three airstrikes on May 26. Initial reports also indicated that a teenage girl died from injuries sustained in a strike on the previous day that also killed a woman and a young girl.
One airstrike killed four men in a camp in the Middle Gaza. The office said the strike reportedly followed resistance by the men to attempts by armed gangs, allegedly supported by the Israeli military, to search homes. Two other men were killed in Khan Younis when a strike hit a car.
A third airstrike, targeting an apartment in Gaza City, killed a newly appointed commander of the Hamas Al Qassam Brigades, the commander’s wife, three children and a woman passing nearby.
The office also reported that 10 people allegedly affiliated with the Al Qassam Brigades were killed in a strike on May 27.
The OHCHR said Israeli forces had killed 922 Palestinians in attacks since the announcement of the ceasefire in October. The overall death toll since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, has reached nearly 73 000, according to local authorities. At least 32 children and eight women have been killed in attacks since the truce.
The office said Palestinians continued to face shortages of adequate shelter, essential medicines, food and other necessities as the blockade on Gaza continued. Nearly the entire population remains displaced and concentrated into what the office described as a progressively narrower strip of land, following multiple displacement orders in recent days.
The office also referred to an announcement on Thursday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directing Israeli forces to expand deployment to cover 70% of Gaza’s territory. Head of the human rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Sunghay, said concern over possible war crimes in Gaza had not stopped and described continued military attacks under current conditions as unthinkable.
Separately, the UN aid coordination office said an airstrike on Thursday hit a residential area near five humanitarian facilities in Deir al-Balah. No casualties were reported.
–UN/ChannelAfrica–
