The ongoing Israel-Palestine war has once again reached a tragic milestone with the latest being a deadly attack on the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in central Gaza on August 29, 2024.
In this saddening incident, an Israeli attack kills 20 Palestinians including children with a couple of others injured due to airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. Earlier that day, a medical source at Al-Awda Hospital reported that they received seven bodies that included four children, after an Israeli airstrike rattled residential apartments in Nuseirat Refugee Camp in central Gaza.
In another incident not too far from the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, Mahamoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, mentioned on Telegram that two Palestinians were struck in cold blood with more injured after an Israeli warplane rained bombs on houses in the Zeitoun neighborhood which is southeast of Gaza City.
Basal also noted that five Palestinians lost their lives when an Israeli drone targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in the Wadi Saber area east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and further reported that an Israeli warplane targeted a house in the Beit Lahia Project area, resulting in several injuries.
Israel’s war on Gaza has resulted in a total of more than 40,600 Palestinian deaths with women and children being the most affected, and over 93,800 injuries, according to local health authorities.
An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.
Israel’s Response to the Onslaught
While Jonathan Conricus, a spokesperson for The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) mentioned in the last days of 2023 that their military actions are not meant to harm civilians but rather at militants operating within the Gaza Strip, his words seemingly ring hollow less than a year later.
Speaking at the UN office in Geneva to members of the Association of Accredited Correspondents at the UN (ACANU), Jonathan Conricus said,
‘‘According to the laws of armed conflict, we are not targeting civilians. Casualties in Gaza or civilian casualties are regrettable. They are not the aim of our operations.’’
‘‘We do not target civilians. If we were targeting civilians, then of course the situation would be far, far worse. We are not,’’ he added.
Final Thoughts
The deaths of innocent civilians, especially children, in incidents like the Nuseirat bombing raise questions about the IDF's operational protocols and the effectiveness of measures supposedly in place to avoid civilian harm. The fact that such casualties continue to occur regularly suggests that more stringent precautions are needed, or that current methods are not as precise as claimed. Or even worse, that Israel’s attack on Gaza is going as planned.
The loss of life in Gaza caused by the ongoing Israel-Palestine war has impacted more lives in worse ways than we can ever imagine. From declining mental health of the Palestinians to physical injuries, the true impact of Israel’s war on Gaza cannot be accurately measured.
Children have lost parents, parents have lost children, families have been shredded apart, and people have been stripped of their basic human rights. With incidents like the latest attack at Nuseirat refugee camp, we can only hope for an end to the Israel-Palestine war soon.