‘Intensified’ Israeli attacks again target northern Gaza, Israel kills 142 Palestinians in 24 hours

UN: Israel kills two Palestinian mothers every hour in Gaza

The Israeli army kills an average of two Palestinian mothers in Gaza every hour. That appears from a study by UN Womenthe organization within the United Nations that is committed to gender equality. The Gendered Impact of the Crisis in Gaza describes how women and young girls in particular are disproportionately affected by Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip. “For them there is no place of safety or rest. (…) These are people, not numbers, and we are letting them down,” said UN Women Director Sima Bahous.

Women and young girls make up at least 70 percent of all fatalities in the Palestinian territory. The Israeli offensive in Gaza, a military response to the Hamas attacks of October 7, which ultimately killed around 1,200 people, has now killed 24,927 Palestinians.

Generational trauma
The UN agency sees how women and girls in Gaza do not have access to healthcare or housing and face acute famine. One million of them belong to the large group of displaced Palestinians in the area. Moreover, at least 10,000 Palestinian children are said to have lost their fathers due to Israeli attacks, placing even more of the burden of care on the shoulders of Palestinian women. “The generational trauma inflicted on the Palestinian people over the past 100 days will haunt us all for generations to come,” Bahous said.

The United Nations is also concerned that less than one percent of emergency financial aid reaches organizations that promote the basic rights of women in Gaza. According to the UN, only an immediate ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid can put an end to this. Women should also be involved in both aid coordination and ‘all political decision-making at all levels’.

At the end of December, the United Nations estimated that Gaza had at least 50,000 pregnant women. At least 180 Palestinian women are said to be giving birth every day amid what the UN and aid agencies have repeatedly called “catastrophic humanitarian conditions.”

Israeli drone strike at Lebanese-Israeli border, two Hamas members killed

Two members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas were killed in a suspected Israeli attack in southern Lebanon on Saturday. This was reported by the Reuters news agency, among others. According to security sources from the news agency, the duo were hit by drone attacks in their car. Israel has not yet claimed the attack. Well the Israeli army reported on Saturday that it has targeted infrastructure of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Military tensions have been growing on the Lebanese-Israeli border since October 7 with mutual attacks between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. In particular, the early January assassination of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in the Lebanese capital Beirut — most likely by Israel — has further fueled fears of a military escalation of violence in the Middle East.

Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli army is believed to have also launched an attack on the diplomatic center of the Syrian capital Damascus, killing four members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRF). Like Hezbollah, the Iranian regime has repeatedly spoken out in strong terms about Israeli violence in Gaza in recent months.

Two senior Iranian military advisers killed in suspected Israeli airstrike in Damascus

At least five people, including four members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRF), were killed in an airstrike on a building in the Syrian capital Damascus, believed to have been carried out by Israel, on Saturday morning. The attack took place in a building where an intelligence unit of Iran’s elite military corps was holding a meeting. Two important Iranian military advisors and the head of the IRF information service were reportedly killed, according to the Reuters news agency.

The United Kingdom-based human rights organization Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, among others, writes the attack on Israel and speaks of a “targeted attack”. Israel has not yet responded to the claim.

Also read: Is Iran looking for escalation? ‘No one can stop these fighters’

A four-storey building in the western Mazzeh district, the diplomatic center of Damascus including the Lebanese and Iranian embassies, is said to have been completely destroyed. It would not be the first time that the Israeli army has carried out attacks on Syrian territory or targeted Iranian facilities. After all, Tehran is considered an ally of Hamas.

‘Intensified’ Israeli attacks again target northern Gaza, Israel kills 142 Palestinians in 24 hours

The Israeli army again took several parts of the Gaza Strip under fire on Saturday morning, various international media reported. According to Al Jazeera, Israel certainly has that eighteen Palestinians killed. Both the Arabic news channel and the French news agency AFP speak of one “increased intensity” of Israeli attacks throughout the Palestinian territory. On Friday, the Israeli army killed 142 Palestinians in a 24-hour period, according to United Nations figures. These figures are for NRC cannot be independently verified.

On Saturday, Israel continued its offensive, including in the southern city of Khan Younis. According to Al Jazeera the attacks would concentrate there on the area around the Al-Nasser hospital and the Jordanian field hospital. There are particular concerns about Al-Nasser Hospital, the largest partially functioning medical facility, which has been under Israeli fire for weeks. Earlier this week, aid organizations sounded the alarm that the hospital was in danger of failing. Several other residential areas of the southern city were also hit by Israeli bombings.

Although the Israeli army has shifted the focus of its offensive in recent weeks from northern Gaza to the center and south of the Palestinian territory, it again fired bombardments into northern parts of Gaza on Saturday morning. In addition to the northern Jabalia refugee camp, Israeli attacks were also reported in central Gaza City, around the now defunct Al-Shifa hospital and in Beit Lahiya. According to Al Jazeera, there are “heavy confrontations” with Palestinian militant groups in Khan Younis and Jabalia.

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This blog will follow NRC the war between Israel and Hamas and all developments related to it. You can find our previous blog here.