The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached a new depth as Israeli forces launched a barrage of shells into tent camps for displaced Palestinians, killing at least 25 people and wounding 50. The attack occurred near a Red Cross field hospital, which was flooded with casualties, including 22 dead and 45 wounded. The field hospital, which was opened in mid-May, provides emergency surgeries, obstetric, pediatric, and outpatient care to hundreds of people, including many hospital staff.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has strongly condemned the firing of high-caliber projectiles just meters from the hospital, where hundreds of people live in tents. The ICRC emphasized that the hospital’s location is known to all parties in the conflict and is marked with the Red Cross emblem. Witnesses who lost loved ones in the bombardment near the Red Cross hospital told the Associated Press that Israeli forces fired a second volley that killed people who came out of their tents.
The attack is the latest in a series of deadly attacks in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled fighting between Israel and Hamas. It comes less than a month after an Israeli bombing triggered a deadly fire that tore through a camp for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza, drawing widespread international outrage. The fighting has killed over 37,400 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Gaza Crisis Deepens as Israeli Forces Launch Devastating Shells into Displaced Palestinian Camps
The United Nations has said that no place in Gaza is safe and humanitarian conditions are dire. Families are sheltering in tents and cramped apartments without adequate food, water, or medical supplies. Civil Defense teams in the northern Gaza Strip recovered the bodies of five people who were killed in an airstrike that hit two apartments in Gaza City, and several others were wounded. An airstrike earlier Friday hit a municipal garage in the city and killed five people.
The Israeli army said two soldiers were killed in combat in central Gaza, with no information given about the circumstances of the deaths. Three other Israeli soldiers were severely injured. Israel launched the war after Hamas’ October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and abducting about 250. The top United Nations court has concluded that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza, a charge that Israel strongly denies.
