Gaza woke up to another day with relentless and fierce Israeli attacks that have been going on for a month.
During that time, the most densely populated area in the world was reduced to rubble. Daylight in Gaza is shrouded in dust and dark gray smoke, while the nights are colored the color of flames from intense bombing.
Destruction and fires are not all there is to see in Gaza. Hundreds of civilians, mostly women and children, are buried every day. In the streets surrounded by ruins, there are long queues for water, bread, food and medicine.
The people of Gaza struggle every day for survival and survival.
The evenings of Palestinians in Gaza are no longer like before the war. These days they start in the late afternoon, because with the sunset everyone returns to what is left of their homes. Israel’s targets are basically anything that moves on the road.
At least 10,022 Palestinians, including 4,104 children and 2,641 women, have been killed in Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip.
1,270 children under the ruins
Another 159 Palestinians were killed and 2,250 wounded by Israeli forces across the West Bank during the same period.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said 70 percent of the victims of Israeli aggression were women and children.
“We have received 2,660 reports of missing persons under the rubble, including 1,270 children, since the beginning of the aggression against Gaza,” said Qudra.
He also said that 175 health workers were killed and 31 ambulances were destroyed.
He said the occupation targeted more than 110 health facilities “which caused 16 hospitals and 32 primary health care centers to be out of business due to Israeli attacks and lack of fuel.”
According to the government media office in Gaza, 46 journalists were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
The office said on Sunday that “the occupation deliberately directly targets journalists, including those who perished when their homes were collapsed over their heads, along with their families.”
Massive destruction
About 220,000 homes were destroyed in the Israeli attacks, which is about 60 percent of the total housing units in the Gaza Strip.
“The Israeli occupation has completely destroyed 55 mosques and partially damaged 112 mosques,” said Salama Maroof, head of the Government Media Office in Gaza.
The Church of Saint Porphyry, the third oldest church in the world, was also targeted by airstrikes. In addition, two other churches were destroyed or damaged, Maroof added.
In the Israeli attacks, 15 health facilities and 51 primary health clinics were destroyed, 150 ambulances were damaged, and 16 major hospitals out of a total of 35 in the Gaza Strip were put out of service.
220 schools were also affected, of which 38 were completely destroyed, the Media Office announced.
In addition, 42 facilities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) were destroyed, including buildings where displaced persons sought shelter.
The health situation is getting worse
The destruction is just a small part of the humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip, where 55 percent of health sector partners have had to suspend work due to significant infrastructure damage.
This has forced hospitals to operate with less than one-third of the required resources to treat the large number of injured, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Sunday.
The Ministry also pointed to the “possibility of stopping incubators for newborns”, pointing out that there are 350,000 patients with non-communicable diseases and 1,000 patients who need kidney dialysis. Eighty percent of dialysis machines are located in hospitals in northern Gaza.
In a statement to Anadolu, dr. Rami Al-Abadla, deputy director of Palestinian health care, said that “consuming contaminated water increases the chances of spreading epidemics.”
“The water supply has been completely cut off, and the Israeli army has cut three water lines that were used to supply the Gaza Strip,” Al-Abadla pointed out.
He stressed that they have about 1,000 cases a day, including cases of diarrhea, cholera, respiratory infections and poisoning.
He added that “some vaccines are available, but mass migration and insecure movement have made vaccination rates very low, due to the fear of going to health centers to vaccinate children.”
1.5 million Palestinians displaced
About 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza are internally displaced, including 117,000 IDPs staying in health facilities and about 69,400 in 149 emergency shelters belonging to UNRWA.
In addition, 15 percent of forcibly displaced persons have various health problems, and most shelter facilities are not adequately equipped to meet their needs.
Humanitarian situation
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a Sunday press release that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is “catastrophic and getting worse every moment”.
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is unprecedented since our permanent presence there since 1967. The water and wastewater infrastructure is largely damaged and most of it is out of order, a harbinger of an environmental disaster,” the ICRC said. .
They warned that “hospitals in Gaza are on the verge of total collapse, with exhausted doctors and shortages of medical supplies and fuel.”
They stated that “surgical procedures are performed without anesthesia, often in hospital corridors due to the large number of victims.”
They called for the “protection of hospitals, medical staff and ambulances”, stressing that “hospitals must remain places of life-saving and safe havens for those who are displaced and should not turn into places of destruction and death”.
Military operations
At the military level, after the continuous advance of Israeli military vehicles into the territory of the Gaza Strip in the past few days, they withdrew on Saturday at one of the key axes of infiltration in the northwest of the Strip at a distance of two kilometers.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks advanced near al-Zaitun settlement and the outskirts of Tel al-Hawa settlement, moving west towards al-Rashid Street on the seafront.
The advance came amid intense clashes with armed Palestinian factions, resulting in casualties among the Israeli army, Anadolu Agency reports.
