Israeli forces struck another UN school in Gaza on Sunday evening, killing at least 20 Palestinians, including children, while nearly 19,000 children have been hospitalised for severe malnutrition over the past four months.
The attack on the Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz School in Khan Younis injured many displaced families who had taken refuge there, according to Wafa news agency citing local sources.
Israeli forces also bombed several residential houses in the Abu Qamar neighbourhood of Jabalia refugee camp. This comes after a similar attack on a school in Beit Hanoun on Sunday that killed at least 43 people.
Israel has continued to intensify attacks on northern Gaza, which has been under a complete blockade for more than two months, despite international calls to stop the aggression and allow aid into the area.
Israel also provoked widespread condemnation by killing an Al-Jazeera cameraman on Sunday. The killing of an Al-Jazeera cameraman on Sunday marked the fifth time the channel’s journalists have been killed since the start of the war in the enclave.
Acute malnutrition on the rise
Meanwhile, UN agency UNRWA announced this week that nearly 19,000 children in Gaza have been hospitalised over the past four months for acute malnutrition.
The organisation said the figure was almost double the number of cases reported in the first half of the year in the Strip, and stressed that the surge in cases comes as Israel continues to obstruct the delivery of essential humanitarian aid. One of the items in short supply is infant formula, and the remaining functioning health centres in the Gaza Strip have little or no stock of formula to distribute.
On Monday, the UN reiterated that Gaza was facing an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” adding that some 1.9 million people had been repeatedly displaced and more than 70 per cent of Gaza’s infrastructure had been destroyed.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Sunday that Israeli troops also destroyed the Abu Shbak medical centre in Jabalia, which provided Palestinians with essential first aid and mental health services.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Monday that Israel’s offensive against Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave had killed more than 45,000 people. Some 107,000 people were also injured in the conflict, the ministry said.
