July-Sep

Published October 1, 2024

July 1: The Israeli army orders Palestinians living in eastern areas of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, to leave immediately for an unspecified “humanitarian zone”. Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee with no idea where to go. Nearby Mawasi, where army orders have directed people in the past, suffers frequent Israeli attacks, Al Jazeera reports. The death toll in the enclave now stands at 37,200.

Palestinian journalist Mansour Shouman, who witnessed Israel’s assault in Rafah and Khan Younis, says Gazans in Israeli custody are “in terrible conditions both mentally and physically”.

“They have no access to proper food or water, they are being tortured. They are going through hell on earth right now.”

A Palestinian man holds his children as he walks next to buildings destroyed in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. — Reuters
A Palestinian man holds his children as he walks next to buildings destroyed in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. — Reuters

July 2: A quarter of a million people in Gaza have been impacted by the Israeli army’s fresh evacuation orders, the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees says. Residents of the enclave describe the ordeal as tiring. “This time we did not take anything with us … there is no time to carry anything,” says one.

The UN adds that children in Gaza are facing death and serious injuries due to unexpected bombs that scatter throughout the strip. At least 31 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza in Israeli attacks, according to the health ministry.

July 3: More than 150,000 people in Gaza have contracted skin diseases due to squalid conditions caused by the relentless Israeli bombardment, the WHO says. More than 90,000 cases of scabies and lice, 9,274 cases of chickenpox, 60,130 cases of skin rashes and 10,038 impetigo cases have been reported in the enclave since the start of hostilities, it adds. There is no way for Palestinians to prevent or treat these diseases due to Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid coming into the besieged strip.

A Palestinian tailor works in a newly reopened sewing factory after the machines were retrieved from a building hit in an Israeli strike. — Reuters
A Palestinian tailor works in a newly reopened sewing factory after the machines were retrieved from a building hit in an Israeli strike. — Reuters

Meanwhile, journalists say Gazans have lost trust in Israel’s evacuation orders, citing cases where people have been killed hours after they moved into designated evacuation zones. “People in the last nine months have been moved around like pawns in a board game,” says Andrea De Domenico, head of the United Nations’ OCHA agency in the Palestinian territories.

July 4: The Nasser and Kuwaiti hospitals in southern Gaza are expected to soon shut down services as generators at the facilities are running out of fuel, health authorities say. This is a death sentence for the hundreds of patients receiving life-saving treatment at the centres. At the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north, around 250 premature babies are fighting for their lives, literally starving to death.

The UN attributes these cases to the dearth of humanitarian supplies coming into the enclave. The agency says it is too dangerous to distribute aid in the enclave, where the death toll since Oct 7 has surpassed 38,000.

Palestinian rescuers work to evacuate casualties from a residential building hit by Israeli strikes which destroyed shops at Gaza’s Old City market, in Gaza City. — Reuters
Palestinian rescuers work to evacuate casualties from a residential building hit by Israeli strikes which destroyed shops at Gaza’s Old City market, in Gaza City. — Reuters

July 5: Israeli fighter jets and helicopters target two UN-run schools in Gaza City, resulting in multiple casualties, according to war monitors. Bombardment continues in other areas of the enclave as well. In the strip’s Shujayea neighbourhood, where an Israeli ground invasion is ongoing, heavy shelling and airstrikes can be heard but no ambulances or journalists are being allowed.

July 6: At least 54 people have been killed and dozens wounded in Israeli bombing across Gaza in the past 24 hours as rescue workers search the rubble of blown-up buildings for survivors.

A UN-run warehouse neighbouring the Maghazi and Nuseirat refugee camps is among the buildings attacked. The strike kills 13 people, Wafa reports. In another attack on a house, at least 10 Palestinians are killed and several others injured. Among the dead are Palestinian journalists Amjad Jahjouh and Wafa Abu Dabaan.

Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli air strike on a UN school sheltering displaced people at Nusairat in central Gaza Strip. — Reuters
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli air strike on a UN school sheltering displaced people at Nusairat in central Gaza Strip. — Reuters

July 7: Palestinian officials in Gaza say they are recovering bodies bearing signs of mutilation and torture, both of which are war crimes. Three bodies in Rafah are found with their hands cuffed. In its report, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor accuses Israel’s military of preventing and obstructing the recovery of victims and missing people by targeting civil defence crews, rescue teams, and families trying to recover bodies.

At the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, dozens of wounded Palestinians are being brought in after an Israeli strike targets yet another UN-run school in the nearby Nuseirat neighbourhood. “The hospital is completely overwhelmed, there are patients everywhere,” a doctor working at the facility says.

July 8: The Israeli military has expanded evacuation orders for Gaza City, spurring a new wave of displacement and rendering several medical facilities out of service. In the past few days, similar directions have been issued for southern Gaza as well which leaves Palestinians believing that no place is safe in the enclave anymore. Even so-called “safe zones” are being targeted, showing Israel’s intent to kill Palestinians and create conditions to bring about their physical destruction.

The WHO says these evacuation orders are endangering the health of people in the besieged enclave. According to the organisation’s chief, the Al-Ahli and Patient Friendly hospitals in northern Gaza are the latest facilities rendered out of service. Patients evacuated from Al-Ahli have been moved to the Indonesian hospital which is now operating at three times its capacity.

Over the past day, Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 40 people, the health ministry in the besieged territory says.

July 9: In a statement, UN experts say Israel is carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign” in Gaza. “We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza,” 10 independent United Nations experts say in the report.

Israeli attacks hit a UN-run school in Khan Younis killing 29 displaced Palestinians, mostly women and children, the Gaza media office says.

July 10: There’s “absolute madness” in Gaza, says B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. The Israeli army has ordered the evacuation of the entire Gaza City — where more than a quarter of a million still live — dropping leaflets saying that the urban areas “will remain a dangerous combat zone”. But residents are not willing to leave.

“I will not leave Gaza [City]. I will not make the stupid mistake that others have made. Israeli missiles do not differentiate between north and south,” one Palestinian tells BBC. “If death is my fate and the fate of my children, we will die with honour and dignity in our homes.”

July 11: Civil defence workers recover at least 60 bodies in northern Gaza City’s Shujayea after a two-week Israeli assault renders the neighbourhood unlivable with 85pc of homes completely destroyed, Al Jazeera reports. Civilians fleeing the area say people were shot dead by Israeli snipers during forced evacuations.

A UN-run school in central Gaza, housing 14,000 Palestinians, has not had any food to distribute since March 11, says a UNRWA spokesperson. Children, once healthy, are no longer “recognisable” because of severe malnutrition and disease. There is a shortage of water as well because no fuel has been delivered.

Meanwhile, a UN report says 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank between July 2 and 9, bringing the total number of people killed in the territory since October to 553. Moreover, over 1,000 settler attacks have been reported, displacing 1,390 people, including 660 children.

July 12: A local official says Israeli forces deliberately targeted displaced Palestinians in Gaza city, adding that bodies of 70 people have been recovered after the attacks in the Tal al-Hawa area, Al Jazeera reports. Earlier, the Gaza civil defence said it found 60 bodies in the same neighbourhood.

Palestinians walk past the rubble of apartment buildings. — Reuters
Palestinians walk past the rubble of apartment buildings. — Reuters

Near Khan Younis, four aid workers from UK humanitarian organisation Al-Khair Foundation are killed in an Israeli air raid.

July 13: More than 1.7m Palestinians have contracted infectious diseases in Gaza due to harsh conditions arising from displacement, the media office says, adding that 350,000 people with chronic diseases in the enclave face great risks due to the Israeli army’s blockade of aid.

Meanwhile, at least 90 people are killed and 300 wounded in an Israeli air attack on the al-Mawasi refugee camp, an Israeli-designated “safe zone”, the health ministry says. Another separate Israeli attack kills at least 20 people who gathered to pray near the ruins of a mosque at the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.

July 14: At least 17 Palestinians are killed and over 50 wounded in overnight Israeli bombing, Reuters reports, adding that the fatalities resulted from attacks on four houses in different areas of the city.

In the north, Gaza City’s Shujayea area has been wiped out. “They bombed us without warning, they did not drop leaflets or call. Missiles just started falling on civilians — women, children and elderly people. The occupation army told us to go to western Gaza, then they invaded and targeted it with their missiles,” a resident says.

July 15: The headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees in the north Gaza has been flattened, says UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini. “Another episode in the blatant disregard of international humanitarian law. United Nations facilities must be protected at all times. They must never be used for military or fighting purposes. Every war has rules. Gaza is no exception,” he writes on X along with images of the bombed facility.

A Palestinian boy looks on as he scavenges for usable items at a dump site in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters
A Palestinian boy looks on as he scavenges for usable items at a dump site in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters

July 16: Some 30,000 pregnant women in Gaza are in danger of being exposed to acute hunger, the UN says, adding that more than 10,000 are on the verge of famine while 7,000 are already experiencing “famine conditions”. Additionally, 155,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women in the enclave are in urgent need of food aid.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says 70pc of its schools in Gaza have been bombed, while 539 people sheltering on its premises have been killed. According to Al Jazeera, at least 17 people, including children, have been killed and 26 injured in an Israeli air attack near an area of tents housing displaced families in Khan Younis. In central Gaza, an attack on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp kills over 23 and leaves 73 others, says the government media office.

July 17: Palestinian journalists report a notable surge in Israeli attacks on the densely populated Nuseirat refugee camp which is hosting thousands of Gazan families. At least 81 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza during the latest 24-hour period, health officials say.

Even UN-run centres are being targeted. The attacks are “an almost daily occurrence”, says Lazzarini. Around eight UN-run schools sheltering Palestinians have been hit in the past 10 days.

July 18: An analysis of new UN satellite images shows that 63pc of Gaza’s crop fields have experienced a “significant decline in health and density” due to razing, heavy vehicle activity, bombing, shelling and other conflict-related causes. Farming is one of the main occupations in Palestine and the damage to crops shows that Israel is deliberately inflicting conditions on the Palestinians that would bring about their physical destruction.

Israel has once again bombed a UN-run school, this time in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood. The attack killed two displaced people sheltering there. It is the ninth school Israel has bombed in the last 10 days.

July 19: It has been over 280 days since Israel began bombing Gaza. The death toll is nearing 40,000. These numbers will increase in the coming days as Unicef reveals it has found the presence of poliovirus in the enclave. The announcement comes after a European activist group released a report saying the Gaza Strip is “drowning” in hundreds of thousands of tonnes of human waste and rubble from the constant bombardment.

The report comes in the backdrop of the International Committee of Red Cross warning that hospitals in southern Gaza are at “breaking point”.

July 20: It is the day after the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories as illegal. Gaza is being bombed from north to south. At least 37 people have been killed and 54 others wounded over the past 24 hours in attacks on homes in the besieged territory.

July 21: Israeli tanks advance further into western and northern Rafah where bombing has killed 39 Palestinians overnight, Reuters reports. Hospitals are facing a critical shortage of fuel and medical supplies. Everyone in Gaza is tired of the bombing, of death, of displacement. Everyone but Israel.

July 22: The Israeli military has called on Gazans to clear out of the eastern parts of Khan Younis city, saying it is preparing to “forcefully operate” in the area, which it had earlier designated as a humanitarian zone, Reuters reports. But before everyone can evacuate, bombs start raining down.

A man squats next to a fire, as Palestinians, who fled the eastern part of Khan Younis, were ordered by the Israeli army to evacuate their neighbourhoods,  in Khan Younis. — Reuters
A man squats next to a fire, as Palestinians, who fled the eastern part of Khan Younis, were ordered by the Israeli army to evacuate their neighbourhoods, in Khan Younis. — Reuters

July 23: About 84 people were killed and over 300 wounded in Israeli bombing overnight, the health ministry in Gaza says, reiterating that civilians are not given time to evacuate before the attacks begin. The UN agency for Palestinians says 80pc of Gaza has been placed under a “no-go zone”.

In a statement on evacuations, the UN humanitarian office says: “Despite the evacuation order, Israeli military operations continued in and around the area unabated. The evacuation order also covered parts of Salah al-Deen Road, which has been one of two main routes vital for the transport and distribution of aid, raising concerns that delivery and provision of desperately needed humanitarian assistance will be further reduced or prevented.”

July 24: The Gaza Government Media Office says 129 people have been killed in the past 48 hours in Khan Younis after Israel ordered residents to evacuate ahead of launching a new offensive against the southern city.

A mourner sits next to a crying youth during the funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters
A mourner sits next to a crying youth during the funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters

July 25: The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says ambulances evacuating injured Gazans are directly targeted by Israeli forces, Al Jazeera reports. The UN chief says aid convoys are also being fired at.

According to international humanitarian law, health establishments and units, including hospitals, should not be attacked. This protection extends to the wounded and sick as well as to medical staff and means of transport.

July 26: A group of 45 American doctors and nurses who worked in Gaza write a letter to US President Biden detailing that over 92,000 people have likely died in the enclave, representing 4.2pc of Gaza’s population. They highlight that each signatory treated Palestinian children who appeared to have been deliberately targeted. They further say that they treated pre-teen children shot in the head and chest daily, remarking that nearly everyone in Gaza was either sick, injured, or both.

In Khan Younis, the UN says more than 180,000 Palestinians have been displaced.

July 27: Witnesses and rescuers say heavy battles have continued around eastern Khan Younis during the last 24 hours. The Nasser Hospital says 26 bodies were brought to the medical site. Meanwhile, an Israeli attack on Gaza’s Deir al-Balah kills 30 Palestinians, AFP reports.

A wounded Palestinian child is carried to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in the aftermath of an Israeli attack in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. — Reuters
A wounded Palestinian child is carried to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in the aftermath of an Israeli attack in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. — Reuters

July 28: The Israeli army issues new evacuation orders for residents of Nuseirat and Bureij in central Gaza, affecting around 29,000 people, according to the UN, which also reports that only 14pc of Gaza is not currently under evacuation orders.

At least 66 Palestinian people have been killed and 241 injured in Israeli strikes across Gaza over the past 24-hour reporting period, the health ministry says.

July 29: A polio epidemic has been declared across Gaza which shows how public health in the strip is worsening. The health ministry in the enclave blames Israel’s devastating military offensive for the spread of the deadly virus. Israel’s war in Gaza has damaged and destroyed sewage and water systems, and sewage has spilled into the streets near some camps for the displaced Palestinians.

Palestinians make their way to return to neighbourhoods in the eastern side of Khan Younis after Israeli forces pulled out from the area. — Reuters
Palestinians make their way to return to neighbourhoods in the eastern side of Khan Younis after Israeli forces pulled out from the area. — Reuters

July 30: Palestinian journalists say there has been an “endless number of testimonies” in past years over Israelis “sexually assaulting Palestinians”. The statement comes days after news emerged that Israeli soldiers are being held in a case of suspected abuse of Palestinian detainees at a facility holding Gazans detained during the ongoing conflict.

After a week-long incursion, the Israeli army leaves Khan Younis after which thousands of Palestinians return to their homes where 200 people are reported missing and 300 bodies are recovered by rescue workers.

July 31: An Al Jazeera journalist and a camera operator are killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicle in northern Gaza’s Shati refugee camp. the media network calls the killings a “targeted assassination”. In Khan Younis, authorities say the Israeli military has blown up more than 30 water wells.

Aug 1: Israeli authorities have announced the seizure of around 790 hectares (1,950 acres) of land near the town of Salfit in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera quotes the Wafa news agency as reporting.

The report adds that 7,902 dunums of land — 790 hectares — will be appropriated from residents of the village of Iskaka, for the use of the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Nofim Haniya, first established in 2002.

In Gaza, at least 15 Palestinians were killed by an Israeli strike on a school sheltering dozens of displaced families.

Aug 2: Gaza marks the 300th day of Israel’s military campaign as Palestinian-American scholar Noura Erakat says it is “maddening and shameful” that the world had not been able to stop one of the “grossest, most blatant colonial genocides”. To date, approximately 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Not only that, Israel has also destroyed 151,265 structures in the Gaza strip, which makes up almost two-thirds of the enclave, according to UNOSAT’s latest damage building assessment based on satellite imagery.

Aug 3: The Israeli military strikes two schools sheltering displaced persons in Gaza, killing 30 people and leaving several wounded.

At least three bombs were dropped, Al Jazeera reports, adding that rescuers and volunteers inside the facilities were trying to help people escape from under the rubble. “This is the tactic that the Israeli military has widely used in the past. The military drops a bomb that partially destroys facilities, namely evacuation centres, killing several people, and then within a few minutes, it drops other bombs,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud says.

Aug 5: The Israeli army hands over the bodies of 80 Palestinians in 15 bags to Gaza, with the remains too decomposed to be identified, says the enclave’s civil defence agency. “We do not know if they are martyrs from Gaza or prisoners from Israel’s jails,” Civil Defence director Yamen Abu Suleiman tells AFP.

Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians are killed in airstrikes across Gaza, including five police officers. Additionally, at least eight Palestinians are killed when a drone strikes a vehicle securing humanitarian aid near the al-Matahin intersection, southeast of Deir al-Balah.

The aftermath of Israel’s unabated attack on Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip. — Reuters
The aftermath of Israel’s unabated attack on Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip. — Reuters

Aug 6: A report by the UN humanitarian office says cases of child malnutrition in Gaza have surged by 50pc compared to June, with over 650 Palestinian children now suffering “acute malnutrition”. The head of the agency says he has witnessed the “absolute physical and psychological exhaustion of an entire population” and that the people in Gaza “have been deprived of the mere thinking of what tomorrow could bring for them”.

He adds that aid efforts continue to fall short of the enormous needs in Gaza — which has become a graveyard for children — due to heavy access impediments and widespread security risks.

At least 50 people are killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza and other Palestinian territories.

Aug 7: Israeli forces attack Khan Younis and other areas in southern Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians, while issuing new evacuation orders for Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, already hit by repeated strikes.

Three people are dead and more than 10 wounded in overnight Israeli attacks that destroyed two homes and tents sheltering displaced people in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.

Palestinians work to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on a tent camp for displaced people in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. — Reuters
Palestinians work to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on a tent camp for displaced people in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. — Reuters

Aug 8: Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City target Al-Zahra and Abdel Fattah Hamoud schools, resulting in the deaths of more than 18 people. At least 60 people are also wounded and more than 40 still missing, the civil defence agency says. “This is a clear targeting of schools and safe civilian facilities in the Gaza strip,” it adds.

Separately, the World Central Kitchen (WCK), a non-governmental organisation, confirms that one of their Palestinian staff members, Nadi Sallout, was killed in Gaza.

Palestinian children gather with empty pots and pans in southern Gaza. — Reuters
Palestinian children gather with empty pots and pans in southern Gaza. — Reuters

Aug 9: Thousands of Palestinians are forced to flee Khan Younis in southern Gaza as Israeli forces launch attacks on some 30 sites and issue fresh evacuation orders.

Aug 10: More than 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, according to officials in the enclave. The attack took place while people were performing morning prayers and triggered a fire that ripped through the building.

Later, Anadolu Agency reports that the Israeli airstrikes were so severe that they resulted in the collection of dismembered body parts in plastic bags, highlighting the extreme brutality of Israeli forces.

Aug 11: As Israeli strikes continue to kill people in Gaza, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics says 24pc of the casualties in the enclave are young people while 70pc of the wounded are women and children. Around 10,000 people are missing, and two million have been displaced. The bureau also reports that 620 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, 75pc of whom were under 30.

The alarming figures further show that 34 people in Gaza have died of malnutrition, and 3,500 children are at risk due to severe food shortages.

Aug 13: UN says Israeli authorities denied access to northern Gaza for 32 of 85 coordinated humanitarian missions between Aug 1 and 11. A further 13 were impeded by Israeli authorities and six were cancelled due to logistical and security reasons. Out of 122 aid missions coordinated with Israeli authorities to southern Gaza, 36 were denied, eight were impeded and 15 were cancelled.

At least 10 people are killed and several wounded in an overnight Israeli strike on a home in eastern Khan Younis.

Aug 14: Israeli raids across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 40 people since morning. Meanwhile, the forces have issued fresh evacuation orders for Khan Younis — the fourth such order in less than a week. In north Gaza, newborn twins are killed in an Israeli airstrike as their father went to collect their birth certificates.

Aug 15: Haaretz highlights the ongoing Israeli onslaught in Gaza as one of the “bloodiest” conflicts of the 21st century, where the death toll has surpassed 40,000. According to the Israeli newspaper, the incursion has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of whom were in zones previously designated as “safe” by the Israeli military.

The UN agency for Palestinian Refugees in a statement describes the “deepening dehumanisation” of women and girls in Gaza due to Israel’s relentless attacks. It says women have had to “cut their hair very short due to lice, a lack of shampoo, not enough water or combs”, with some wearing the same headscarf for the past 10 months.

Aug 16: Gaza reports its first confirmed polio case, diagnosed in a 10-month-old baby from Deir el-Balah who had not received any polio vaccination. Separately, Israeli forces carry out attacks in Gaza City and the al-Mawasi area, one of which kills three children sheltering in a tent.

In the West Bank, Israel continues to withhold from families and relatives the bodies of 35 Palestinian children killed in the occupied territory since 2016, a child rights group says. “Palestinian children cannot rest even in death as Israeli authorities continue confiscating children’s bodies and withholding them from their families indefinitely,” Defense for Children International — Palestine says in a statement.

Aug 17: A new Israeli order tells residents of parts of the Maghazi refugee camp to flee, further shrinking Gazans’ safety net for the second day in a row. According to the UN, the “humanitarian zone” encompasses just 11pc of the enclave, with displaced people left in “chaos and fear”.

In the central part of the strip, the Israeli military bombs a warehouse sheltering displaced Palestinians, killing 15 members of one family, including nine children. Meanwhile, Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza has issued a grave warning announcing that it may cease operations within the next 24 hours due to an acute fuel shortage.

Aug 18: The International Rescue Committee says the number of unaccompanied children in Gaza is far higher than Unicef’s estimate of 17,000, with doctors finding children living in hospitals without surviving family members. These separations are a result of mass evacuations, deadly attacks, and arrests by Israeli forces.

The Palestinian Civil Defence reports that around 10,000 people are buried under the rubble, with 1,760 presumed dead as their bodies “disintegrated” from high-intensity weapons.

Women mourn killings of Palestinians in Nablus, West Bank. — Reuters
Women mourn killings of Palestinians in Nablus, West Bank. — Reuters

Aug 19: Under a glaring sun, displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza are lining up for clean water. There is a severe shortage of medical and other aid in the enclave with the Rafah border crossing closed for over 200 days.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli “strikes are now relentless” and some Palestinians in Gaza have no choice but to live in the rubble of destroyed buildings amid expanding Israeli evacuation orders.

Aug 20: Multiple Israeli air strikes on Gaza kill at least 52 Palestinians, with bombs targeting a school, a family home, a crowded market area, and even a mobile phone charging point, Al Jazeera reports.

A child looks on as people pray to mourn Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters
A child looks on as people pray to mourn Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters

Aug 22: At least 11 people are killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, Palestinian news agency Wafa reports. Most of the victims are women and children, it says, citing medical sources. Their charred bodies are taken to the Kamal Adwan Hospital.

The Israeli military issues new evacuation orders in the heavily overcrowded area of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the war have sought shelter, Reuters reports. As the orders are issued, Palestinian families stream out — many on foot — in the middle of the night to seek safety.

Displaced Palestinians travel on a cart after fleeing the western part of Khan Younis, following an evacuation order by the Israeli army. — Reuters
Displaced Palestinians travel on a cart after fleeing the western part of Khan Younis, following an evacuation order by the Israeli army. — Reuters

Aug 23: Overnight, at least four Palestinians, including a child, are killed and several others injured in Israeli air strikes targeting two civilian gatherings in southern Gaza, according to Wafa. Medical sources at Nasser Hospital confirm that the bodies of three victims, including a child, were brought in after a strike hit a gathering in the town of Abasan.

Meanwhile, the United Nations confirms a 10-month-old baby in Gaza has been paralysed due to polio in the first case reported in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years.

Aug 24: Israeli raids across Gaza have killed at least 71 Palestinians, according to medical sources cited by Al Jazeera. In Deir el-Balah, Israel’s renewed evacuation orders have forced more than 100,000 people to flee in under two days, according to the local municipality.

Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, warns that family separations have surged due to repeated displacements, arrests, and evacuation orders.

Aug 25: The Gaza Health Ministry has raised alarms, reporting that 60pc of essential medicines and 83pc of medical supplies in Gaza have been depleted due to the ongoing war and Israel’s closure of border crossings. Despite Israeli orders to evacuate nearby areas, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah remains operational, with staff staying on-site to care for the sick and wounded.

Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee an area ordered to evacuate by the Israeli army in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. — Reuters
Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee an area ordered to evacuate by the Israeli army in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. — Reuters

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation says that it has screened around 240,000 children, aged six months to five years, for malnutrition in Gaza since the beginning of the year. Of those, 14,750 were diagnosed with acute malnutrition, including 3,288 suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), the UN health agency states.

Aug 26: The Human Rights Watch calls on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel’s military for the alleged custodial torture of Palestinian doctors, nurses, and paramedics.

An Israeli drone strike kills at least seven people in Gaza City, as another evacuation order forces injured Palestinians to flee Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, the last functioning medical facility in the area, Al Jazeera reports.

A child eats as Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen near the ruins of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive in Jabalia. — Reuters
A child eats as Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen near the ruins of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive in Jabalia. — Reuters

Aug 27: Amnesty International urges a war crimes investigation into the May 26 Israeli attack that killed at least 36 Palestinians in Rafah, including a toddler and a woman decapitated by metal fragments. It finds that Israeli forces dropped US-made bombs, contradicting Israel’s claim of using smaller munitions.

Rights groups say Israeli authorities are currently holding approximately 600 residents of Gaza in deplorable conditions. “Israeli authorities have abused Palestinians in their custody for over 10 months now, amid international silence and the absence of accountability,” they point out.

In Gaza, the Israeli military kills dozens of Palestinians in attacks predominantly in Deir el-Balah, Khan Younis and Gaza City.

A Palestinian man rescues children injured in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters
A Palestinian man rescues children injured in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters

Aug 28: Doctors Without Borders reports that around 650 patients were forced to evacuate Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza following Israel’s evacuation orders. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme pauses operations within Gaza after Israeli military gunfire strikes a UN humanitarian aid convoy.

Israeli forces attack a school sheltering displaced people in eastern Deir el-Balah in Gaza, killing eight Palestinians. In the West Bank, at least 10 Palestinians have been reported killed as the Israeli military continues its biggest raid in close to two decades, involving hundreds of soldiers and air attacks in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarem.

Aug 29: Deadly Israeli attacks continue across Gaza, from north to south. One such attack hit a camp sheltering displaced people near Khan Younis, killing and injuring women and children, Wafa reports.

Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike at a house in Gaza City. — Reuters
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike at a house in Gaza City. — Reuters

In the West Bank, Israel deploys hundreds of soldiers, armoured vehicles, bulldozers, drones and fighter jets to try to destroy the Palestinian resistance in the regions of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas. At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and scores injured, Al Jazeera reports.

Aug 30: The Israeli military fires a missile at the lead vehicle of an aid convoy in Gaza, killing four Palestinians. The convoy, organised by the Washington-based nonprofit American Near East Refugee Aid, known as Anera, was delivering medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati-run hospital in Rafah. Its route was coordinated with the Israel Defense Forces.

Israeli forces pull out of eastern Khan Younis following a 22-day military incursion with the withdrawal revealing widespread devastation and the civil defence agency recovering at least nine bodies so far.

In the West Bank, the death toll from a three-day Israeli raid rises to 20. Israel has described its raids on towns and refugee camps across the northern West Bank as “counter-terrorism” operations.

Aug 31: Israeli strikes kill at least 61 people in the Gaza Strip with the death toll expected to rise, Palestinian health authorities say. One attack, on a home in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood, kills at least three people and injures others. Another attack, on a home in the city’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, kills three more, according to Wafa.

Sep 1: Israel’s deadly incursion into the occupied West Bank has entered its sixth day with at least 26 Palestinians killed and vast destruction inflicted.

Besides, the Israeli army has blocked water trucks from reaching Jenin Government Hospital, potentially disrupting kidney dialysis services for patients, Anadolu Agency reports. The mayor of Jenin compares the ongoing Israeli military operation to an “earthquake,” estimating that about $135.2 million of damage has been caused so far.

Sep 2: Israeli settlers set fire to large swaths of land, steal 509 herds of sheep, seize nine vehicles and tractors, and uproot 477 trees, including 397 olive trees, in Hebron, Salfit, Bethlehem, Nablus and Ramallah. It must be noted that the top UN court previously obligated Israel to end its unlawful presence in the occupied West Bank and cease all new settlement activity.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, warns in a statement that Israel’s recent intensification of operations in the West Bank marks “a dangerous escalation”.

“Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole,” she says. “The writing is on the wall, and we cannot continue to ignore it. There is mounting evidence that no Palestinian is safe under Israel’s unfettered control.”

Sep 3: Despite localised “humanitarian pauses” to facilitate a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, Israeli violence continues. Overnight, Israeli airstrikes in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza kill five people, according to the civil defence agency.

A Palestinian man sits in front of rubble in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip at the site where an Israeli strike hit a makeshift pastry shop. — Reuters
A Palestinian man sits in front of rubble in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip at the site where an Israeli strike hit a makeshift pastry shop. — Reuters

The violence has not been limited to Gaza. In the West Bank, clashes erupt between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the city of ad-Dhahiriya, south of Hebron. A young man and a child are shot with live bullets during the confrontation. The health ministry reports that Israel’s ongoing weeklong incursion into the occupied West Bank has resulted in 33 deaths since the beginning of the operation.

Sep 4: The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that Israeli forces are using “lethal war-like tactics”, including air strikes, in the occupied West Bank, with people being killed, injured, displaced or deprived of access to basic services.

The Israeli military’s latest assault across the occupied West Bank is now in its eighth day. A 16-year-old Palestinian girl in Jenin was shot dead by an Israeli sniper as she looked out of the window of her home, Reuters reports, quoting her father.

In Gaza, deaths and injuries are reported after an Israeli bombardment targets the tents of displaced Palestinians in the al-Mawasi area.

Palestinian students attend a class in a tent on the rubble in Khan Younis. — Reuters
Palestinian students attend a class in a tent on the rubble in Khan Younis. — Reuters

Sep 5: Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Israeli army is refusing to coordinate the entry of medical teams affiliated with the emergency polio vaccination campaign into some areas of southern Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli attacks across Gaza kill at least 21 people, including a deadly strike near the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north.

Sep 6: A Turkish-American activist is fatally shot in the head by an Israeli soldier during a demonstration in Beita, near Nablus. The shooting draws widespread condemnation across the globe.

In another incident, Bilal Rabah Dar Atta, a young Palestinian man, is beaten by the Israeli army as he attempts to cross a checkpoint at the village of Shuqba, north of Ramallah, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. The Israeli army shut the door of its jeep on the man’s fingers, breaking two of his fingers.

Children and women are among 33 Palestinians killed during Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Sep 7: At least 31 Palestinians have been killed — including children and women — in the Gaza strip as Israel’s military relentlessly bombs northern, central and southern areas. An Israeli air strike targeting a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians kills at least three people, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese says: “I am starting to think with horror that if it’s not stopped, Israel’s assault could end up exterminating almost the entire population in Gaza over the next couple of years.”

Displaced woman Iqbal Al-Zeidi stands in front of her tent which was torn by an Israeli strike on the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah. — Reuters
Displaced woman Iqbal Al-Zeidi stands in front of her tent which was torn by an Israeli strike on the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah. — Reuters

Sep 8: The violence in Gaza continues to escalate, with several deadly Israeli attacks reported across the enclave, killing 33 Palestinians and wounding 145. The scale of destruction has been immense, with entire neighbourhoods suffering severe damage.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum describes a “very bloody attack” carried out by Israeli fighter jets in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza. The strike, launched with three missiles, obliterates several residences, including homes and a residential tower. Two Palestinians, including a woman and her daughter, are killed in the attack, and the devastation leaves rubble scattered throughout the area.

Sep 9: The Israeli military once again orders Palestinians in a neighbourhood in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya to evacuate. Meanwhile, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini says it is not clear if a polio vaccine campaign will go ahead in northern Gaza after Israeli forces detained and threatened UN staff on their way to begin the rollout.

Displaced Palestinians shelter in a tent camp at the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters
Displaced Palestinians shelter in a tent camp at the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters

In the West Bank, Israel delivers a notice of their intent to seize land from the Palestinian villages of Asira al-Qibliya, Burin and Madama, south of Nablus, the Wafa news agency reports.

Sep 10: Tensions in Gaza have reached alarming levels as violence continues to claim lives and disrupt humanitarian efforts. A UN convoy carrying workers for a polio vaccination campaign is held at gunpoint at an Israeli military checkpoint. Shots are later fired, and the convoy’s vehicles are rammed by a bulldozer, further jeopardising the critical mission.

Separately, in a devastating strike, Gaza’s civil defence agency reports 40 people were killed and 60 others wounded in an attack on the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, the main city in southern Gaza. The destruction is severe, with entire families wiped out. “Entire families disappeared in the Mawasi Khan Younis massacre, under the sand, in deep holes,” says civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal.

Sep 11: The United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency announces that six of its staff members were killed in two Israeli air raids on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. This marks the highest death toll among UNRWA staff in a single incident during the ongoing war.

Palestinian children play outside the rubble of a house destroyed in Israeli strikes. — Reuters
Palestinian children play outside the rubble of a house destroyed in Israeli strikes. — Reuters

Sep 12: Israeli forces carry out extensive raids in Kafr Dan, the Jenin refugee camp, and eastern Jenin, severely damaging infrastructure. According to the UN’s humanitarian office, the raids left 45 homes uninhabitable, displacing 297 people, including 102 children.

Additionally, approximately 25 kilometres of roads, or 70pc of the city’s road network, were destroyed, damaging water and sewage systems and leaving 35,000 residents without water since late August. The damage has also caused sewage overflows, compounding the humanitarian crisis.

Sep 13: At least 19 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, including strikes on “safe zones” that Israel has repeatedly targeted.

The secretary-general of Doctors Without Borders, Christopher Lockyer, describes the humanitarian and health situation in Gaza as “catastrophic.” Speaking to Al Jazeera, he says there is no safety for health workers while performing their duties. Lockyer also accuses Israel of using claims of humanitarian aid deliveries as political propaganda, noting that essential materials are not being allowed into the strip.

In the occupied West Bank, the UN refugee agency for Palestinian refugees reports that one of its workers was shot dead by an Israeli sniper. This marks the first time in over 10 years that a UNRWA staff member has been killed in the West Bank.

Sep 14: Another Israeli strike in western Gaza City hits two homes near a UNRWA school used as an evacuation centre, Al Jazeera reports. Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence, says at least 26 people have been killed throughout the day.

Sep 15: Israeli forces are demolishing residential buildings in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood and bombing structures in the nearby al-Mawasi area. The military is basically making the enclave uninhabitable for years to come. The death toll in the enclave has now reached 41,000.

Sep 16: Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza continues, with dozens of people killed across the territory. An Israeli attack near the Qassam cemetery in the Nuseirat refugee camp leaves at least 10 Palestinians dead and 15 wounded, Al Jazeera reports.

The UN Refugee Agency for Palestinians warns of rapidly deteriorating sanitary conditions in Gaza, as disease-spreading insects and rodents pose serious health risks.

Sep 17: Aid organisations report people in Gaza are surviving on just one meal a day, as the Israeli army blocks 83pc of the food aid needed to reach the enclave. A WHO-led aid convoy returning from northern Gaza is shot at by Israeli tanks. The organisation says the “unacceptable” attack took place despite Israeli clearances.

At least 22 Palestinians are killed in various Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, authorities say. According to the Palestinian Education Ministry, 11,001 students were killed and 17,772 injured in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank since the start of Israel’s war on October 7.

A Palestinian woman reacts at the site following Israeli strikes on a tent camp sheltering displaced people at the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis. — Reuters
A Palestinian woman reacts at the site following Israeli strikes on a tent camp sheltering displaced people at the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis. — Reuters

Sep 18: In Khan Younis, rescue workers retrieve the bodies of six displaced Palestinians who were killed when an Israeli air strike targeted the home they were sheltering in, Gaza authorities say.

In the West Bank, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that Israeli forces displaced at least 82 Palestinian families, about 360 people, following deadly raids in Tulkarem and Tubas. It also reveals that 660 housing units were damaged in these incursions. The ongoing violence and movement restrictions are creating “major challenges” for the school year, affecting 782,000 students. Moreover, 58 schools are at risk of demolition due to violence by settlers from illegal settlements.

Sep 19: At least five Palestinians are killed in an Israeli raid on West Bank’s Qabatiya, with video footage showing soldiers throwing bodies off a rooftop. Israeli forces also storm towns near Nablus and Jenin, as well as the Shu’fat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem.

In Gaza, at least six are killed in an attack on a house in Jabalia with dozens wounded as Israel continues its deadly assault on the besieged enclave.

Sep 20: Israeli forces kill at least 27 Palestinians in tank and air attacks across Gaza. Among the dead are 13 members of a family, including three children, all siblings, who were killed in air strikes on two homes in Rafah. Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports from Deir el-Balah that both properties were completely destroyed in the attacks.

A view of garbage which poses danger for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. — Anadolu Agency
A view of garbage which poses danger for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. — Anadolu Agency

In a report, the UN highlights the disproportionate impact of Gaza’s healthcare crisis on women and girls. Over 5,000 female cancer patients lack access to treatment, while 25pc of women report skin infections and account for the majority of hepatitis A and gastrointestinal cases. The agency further notes that 70pc of medications and 83pc of medical supplies are depleted, exacerbating the crisis. As the rainy season approaches, the risk of displacement grows for families sheltering by the sea, with flooding and high tides posing additional dangers.

Sep 21: At least 22 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli strike that hit the Zeitoun School in Gaza City, sheltering displaced people, according to the health ministry. Those killed include 13 children, six women, and a three-month-old baby, it says.

Describing the situation, a witness says: “The Israelis hit us with two missiles without any prior warning. Suddenly, the missiles targeted us in the school. Three floors of the building were destroyed at once.”

Sep 22: In the West Bank, heavily armed Israeli troops raid Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah, imposing a 45-day closure as part of efforts to suppress the network’s coverage. Israeli forces also raid the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, using gunfire and sound bombs, according to Wafa news agency.

Meanwhile, the UN highlights the growing waste problem in Gaza, with trash piling up as hundreds of thousands of people shelter in an increasingly small portion of land. “This is a landfill site in Khan Younis,” UNRWA stated, showing images of the waste. While efforts are being made to dispose of it, the ongoing war and access restrictions severely hamper operations.

Sep 23: Gaza’s Health Ministry reports 24 Palestinians are killed and 60 wounded in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours. Among the victims are a mother and her four children, killed in an attack on Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. Neighbours confirm that no warning was given before the strike.

Amid these attacks, Gaza’s media office calls on the international community to pressure Israel to stop targeting buildings sheltering displaced people and to halt what they describe as “the crime of genocide” in Gaza.

Palestinian gather next to bodies, after a school that was sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli strike, at a hospital in Gaza City. — Reuters
Palestinian gather next to bodies, after a school that was sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli strike, at a hospital in Gaza City. — Reuters

Sep 24: An ambulance near al-Awda Hospital in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp is targeted by the Israeli army. Hospitals in Gaza are struggling to provide care as Israel continues to block essential aid needed to operate.

According to Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum, some medicines have completely run out, along with other vital supplies. He also reports a sharp rise in Israeli strikes targeting densely populated areas in central Gaza and escalating attacks on residential houses in the north.

Sep 25: In war-battered Gaza, Israeli forces continue to pound several parts of the enclave, killing 29 people, including women and children, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency. Meanwhile, the strip’s media office says Israel has returned 88 bodies without providing information on their identities and without the supervision of an international or local body. This has prompted Gaza hospitals to suspend the procedure for taking the bodies.

Sep 26: Israeli forces attack northern Jabalia’s Hafsa al-Faluja school, killing at least 15 Palestinians. Another Israeli air strike targets “a group of citizens” in the al-Zuhoor neighbourhood in the southernmost Gaza city, Palestinian Civil Defence agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal says.

A Palestinian woman stands in the remains of the school building after the strike. — Reuters
A Palestinian woman stands in the remains of the school building after the strike. — Reuters

Sep 27: At least 20 Palestinians are killed across Gaza, including in an Israeli strike on a tent encampment for displaced people. At the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital’s backyard — once a refuge for residents escaping Israeli bombardments — a guided missile, manufactured in the United States, strikes the densely populated area, leaving a devastating crater and scattering belongings, Al Jazeera reports.

Sep 28: Conditions in Gaza are worsening as the war nears a year, Unicef spokesperson James Elder tells Al Jazeera. He highlights the continuous aid restrictions, evacuation orders across 85pc of Gaza, and indiscriminate attacks causing many victims. The suffering of children is severe, with cases of extreme burns and a lack of medical supplies like anaesthetics.

A Palestinian child inspects the damage inside a school sheltering displaced people after it was hit by an Israeli strike in Nuseirat in central Gaza. — Reuters
A Palestinian child inspects the damage inside a school sheltering displaced people after it was hit by an Israeli strike in Nuseirat in central Gaza. — Reuters

Sep 29: At least 28 Palestinians have been killed across the Gaza strip since dawn, medical sources tell Al Jazeera. Israeli attacks target Gaza City in the north, Deir al-Balah in the centre and Hamad City in the south.

Sep 30: Three Palestinians are killed and several others wounded in an Israeli bombing that targeted a residential apartment near the Al-Sha’biya junction in central Gaza City. In another attack, a young Palestinian is killed in the Al-Alami area of the Jabalia refugee camp, Wafa reports.

Israeli planes bombarded several northern, central and southern areas in Gaza, killing 11 Palestinians, Reuters reports. Palestinian journalist Wafa al-Udaini is among the deceased after an airstrike hits her family’s home in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza. Al-Udaini was killed along with three family members, including two children, in the attack.

Palestinian children salvage items from garbage in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. — AFP
Palestinian children salvage items from garbage in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. — AFP

Oct 1: At least 21 Palestinians are killed as Israel ramps up attacks across Gaza, Al Jazeera quotes local officials as saying. Fresh raids are also carried out across the West Bank. The resurgence of violence in the Palestinian territories comes as the world’s attention is drawn to the Israeli military’s assault on Lebanon.

In the besieged Gaza strip, 13 people were confirmed killed, including women and children, in an overnight attack on two houses in the Nuseirat refugee camp, the Wafa news agency reports. Dozens of people were also injured in the attack. Separate strikes have also been reported in Rafah, Khan Younis, and Gaza City.

Palestinian children gather at a destroyed vehicle in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters
Palestinian children gather at a destroyed vehicle in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters

In the West Bank, at least 15 people are arrested in violent raids while a 25-year-old man succumbs to injuries after Israeli soldiers shoot him in the thigh and abdomen in Nablus.

Oct 2: More than 50 people have been killed in Israeli air and ground attacks on Gaza during the previous 24 hours, the health ministry says. The strikes hit two schools and an orphanage (read that again — schools and orphanage) where hundreds of displaced people are sheltering. At least nine displaced people sheltering at the locations were killed, according to the Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

Separately, Israeli tanks storm three neighbourhoods in Khan Younis and carry out deadly air attacks. At least 32 people were killed and dozens wounded, the Associated Press quotes the European Hospital as saying. The outlet states that hospital records show seven women and 12 children — as young as 22 months old — were among those killed.

Palestinians work to extract the body of a woman casualty at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters
Palestinians work to extract the body of a woman casualty at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters

Oct 3: Israeli airstrikes on Gaza kill at least 99 people and injure 169 others, the health ministry says, adding that the death toll in the enclave since Oct 7 is now nearing 42,000. It adds that many victims remain trapped under the rubble, with emergency teams unable to reach them.

In the West Bank, a deadly Israeli air raid on the Tulkarem refugee camp kills 18 Palestinians, with a camp official saying the attack was carried out with an F-16 fighter jet. Footage verified by Al Jazeera shows the massive devastation caused by the strike.

Tulkarem is the second-largest refugee camp in the area. According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the main challenges in the camp are overcrowding, unemployment and poor infrastructure. Specifically, the sewerage network is overburdened and experiences frequent blockages. The dropout rate in the schools in the camp is also relatively high. The situation there has drastically worsened since Oct 7 due to frequent and deadlier Israeli raids.

Oct 4: Pentagon and US State Department officials warned President Joe Biden of Israel’s potential war crimes days after the beginning of the Oct 7 war, a Reuters investigation reveals. The news agency, in a review of three sets of email exchanges between US administration officials dated between Oct 11 and 14, found that the former had sounded alarm over the rising death toll in Gazal, which could violate international law and affect US-Arab ties.

In Gaza, on the other hand, there is a surge in Israeli attacks. According to civil defence crews, 15 bodies were recovered in Khan Younis after a military incursion in the eastern areas of the city. Separately, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees says at least 12 people were killed in attacks on three UN-run schools across the enclave.

Palestinian man Ramadan Al-Zard, who was wounded in an Israeli strike that killed his relatives, embraces his niece who was injured along with him in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters
Palestinian man Ramadan Al-Zard, who was wounded in an Israeli strike that killed his relatives, embraces his niece who was injured along with him in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. — Reuters

Almost 80pc of the schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces and the last remaining university in the strip was demolished by the Israeli military in January, Al Jazeera reports. Palestinians believe these attacks are meant to create conditions that make Gaza unliveable for years to come.

Oct 5: After killing dozens of Gazans in a barrage of attacks, the Israeli military has now warned residents to evacuate part of central Gaza. Later in the day, similar orders are also issued for large swathes of northern Gaza. Residents are being told to flee to the already overcrowded “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi, which too has been a site of bloody massacres in the previous months.

In Dier al-Balah, at least 21 people are killed in an Israeli attack on a mosque housing displaced Palestinians. According to the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Gaza, Israel has destroyed 79pc of mosques across the strip during its “genocidal war”. Along with mosques, three churches were also destroyed, while 19 of 60 cemeteries were deliberately targeted. The ministry also accuses the Israeli army of desecrating graves, exhuming bodies, and committing brutal acts of violence against those who died, such as stealing their remains and mutilating them.

The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property states all parties must respect the cultural properties and refrain from any use of the “property and its immediate surroundings or of the appliances in use for its protection for purposes which are likely to explode it to destruction or damage in the event of armed conflict.

Oct 6: Israeli tanks push into north Gaza’s Beit Lahiya and Jabalia overnight as warplanes bomb several houses, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians. In one air strike, 10 people are killed inside a home. Residents describe it as “one of the worst nights in months” but refuse to vacate their homes, saying that Israeli bombs are indiscriminate across the strip.

Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee areas in northern Gaza Strip following an Israeli evacuation order in Jabalia. — Reuters
Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee areas in northern Gaza Strip following an Israeli evacuation order in Jabalia. — Reuters

Arwa Damon of the International Network for Relief and Assistance says every child in Gaza has been affected by the war. “We also need to take into consideration that a study done by Save the Children prior to October 7 showed 80pc of Gaza’s children — already at that point — suffered from depression and anxiety,” she says, speaking to Al Jazeera.

“This war has been so intense and relentless that every single pillar of existence that is meant to provide stability for a child has been shattered,” she adds.


Header image: People pray over the bodies of the al-Hor family who are laid out in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital courtyard in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip. — Al Jazeera

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