By Abdulsalam Fayez
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - An Israeli army operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza has resulted in 520 killed, injured and missing people within a week, the Gaza media office said Wednesday.
Following the army’s withdrawal from the camp after an eight-day military operation, the office said “the Israeli occupation army committed a crime against humanity and against international law in the areas of Maghazi, Zahra and the New Camp north of Nuseirat.”
“The toll reached 520 martyrs, injured and missing and more than 13,000 housing units demolished within one week,” it added.
The Gaza media said “this comes within the framework of the genocide being waged by the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians, which the US administration supports and participates in.”
"During the Israeli occupation's aggression, 75 martyrs and 348 wounded were recorded who reached hospitals within a week, while 100 citizens were declared missing in the mentioned areas and have not been reached so far, especially in Maghazi,” it added.
The office pointed out that the Israeli army “destroyed 14 towers, residential buildings and dozens of homes belonging to citizens, displacing them from their towers, residential buildings, and homes under the threat of aircraft bombing and tank shells.”
The office also condemned “in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation's crimes against Palestinian civilians.”
It called on “all UN and international organizations and all free world countries to condemn this crime that the occupation has repeated hundreds of times in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the genocidal war against our Palestinian people.”
The media office held “the US administration and the international community, in addition to the Israeli occupation, fully responsible for these crimes and their consequences and effects on the lives of civilians.”
It demanded “all countries of the world to pursue the occupation and its leaders in international forums and courts and to prosecute them for the crime of genocide and their crimes against humanity.”
An Anadolu correspondent said the Israeli army completely withdrew from the northern part of the Nuseirat refugee camp, leaving behind massive destruction.
Israel has waged a military offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last October which killed nearly 1,200 people.
Nearly 33,900 Palestinians have since been killed and 76,664 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the seaside enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.
The war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while much of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered it to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide and guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala