Israel escalating war of extermination: Gaza government

By Abdel Salam Fayez

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Israel is escalating its genocidal war against the Gaza Strip and Palestinians are facing a “real humanitarian catastrophe on all levels,” the Gaza media office said Sunday.

“The Israeli occupation army deliberately inflicts the largest possible number of casualties through intense shelling of all provinces simultaneously using bombs weighing 2,000 pounds each,” it said in a statement on Telegram.

“During the past 24 hours, the occupation committed numerous massacres in all governorates of the Gaza Strip through intense shelling of residents' homes without prior warning.”

The office said this comes “as part of the genocidal war committed by the occupation army against our Palestinian people, with the most heinous of these massacres being the Shujaiya massacre, during which 50 residential buildings and homes were bombed, resulting in hundreds of martyrs and wounded.”

On Saturday, the Palestinian Civil Defense Service in Gaza announced that its crews rescued and evacuated more than 300 Palestinians, including dead and wounded, due to Israeli shelling targeting the Shujaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.

The media office confirmed that the Gaza Strip is experiencing a “real humanitarian catastrophe on all levels” and called on “the international community, all organizations, and international entities to save 2.4 million people.”

It also called on “the international community and the United States to immediately stop the genocidal war being committed by the occupation army against children and women. The continuation of this war means there is approval and a green light for the continuation of brutal killing.”

The Israeli army resumed bombing the Gaza Strip early Friday after declaring an end to a week-long humanitarian pause.

At least 509 Palestinians have been killed and 1,316 injured since Friday in Israeli airstrikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israel launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.

The death toll from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has surged to 15,523 since the start of the conflict on Oct. 7, the Health Ministry in the besieged Palestinian enclave announced Sunday.

The number of wounded through the same period has risen to 41,316.

The official Israeli death toll stands at 1,200.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala