GAZA, (PIC)
As the US-backed Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip entered day 127 on Saturday, massive aerial and artillery strikes continued to pound neighborhoods, homes and shelter centers and massacre more civilians, mostly children and women.
A reporter for the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) said that the Israeli occupation army continued to attack different areas of Gaza, mainly Khan Yunis and Rafah, killing and injuring dozens of citizens.
According to media sources, one civilian was martyred and six others were injured when the Israeli army bombed a house in al-Zeitoun neighborhood in the west of Gaza City, while an unidentified number of casualties were reported in another attack on a house in al-Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City.
Palestinian citizens also founded bodies of civilians after the Israeli forces withdrew from areas in the west of Gaza City and used horse-drawn carts to transport them to the Ahli Hospital.
The Israeli army also attacked a house in eastern Rafah, killing four civilians and injuring others, and bombed an apartment in al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing one civilian and injuring 29 others.
Palestinian media sources also said that a number of martyrs were evacuated from shelter centers which had been directly bombed by the Israeli army, without stating where the attacks happened.
Meanwhile, eyewitnesses reported hearing a number of wounded civilians screaming in pain inside homes in al-Katiba area in the west of Gaza City following an Israeli military withdrawal, saying they needed urgent evacuation from the area to receive medical assistance.
Five martyrs were also transported to the Nasser Hospital following overnight and dawn attacks on Khan Yunis.
Three senior police officials were also martyred when an Israeli airstrike targeted the car they were aboard in Tal as-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah.
Israeli gunboats also attacked fishermen off the shores of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, killing one of them and injuring another one.
A reporter for the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) said that Israeli armored vehicles and tanks encircled the Nasser Hospital in the morning from all sides and blocked the southern road leading to it.
Spokesman for the health ministry Ashraf al-Qudra, for his part, reported that the Israeli army carries out intensive gunfire attacks on the hospital’s buildings, courtyards and gates, adding that one civilian was killed and several others were injured inside the hospital as a result of these attacks.
Qudra also said that four displaced citizens were killed in the hospital’s courtyards in Israeli artillery attacks, while a woman was shot dead by an Israeli sniper at the main entrance of the medical facility.
Israeli tanks also bombed the hospital’s upper floors, which caused extreme panic among the displaced civilians and patients in the facility.
Other casualties were reported in different areas of Gaza following Israeli aerial, artillery and shooting attacks last night and today.
In a separate incident, a six-year-old girl who went missing in Gaza City last month has been found dead, along with several of her relatives and two paramedics who tried to save her.
Hind Rajab was fleeing the city with her aunt, uncle and three cousins when the car they were travelling in appears to have come face to face with Israeli tanks, and come under intensive gunfire.
Audio recordings of calls between Hind and emergency call operators suggest that the six-year-old was the only one left alive in the car, hiding from Israeli forces among the bodies of her relatives.
Her pleas for someone to rescue her ended when the phone line was cut amid the sound of more gunfire.
Paramedics from the Red Crescent managed on Saturday to reach the area, which had previously been under constant Israeli siege and attack.
They found the black Kia car Hind had been travelling in – smashed to pieces and with bullet holes scattered all over its sides.
One paramedic told journalists that Hind was among the six bodies found inside the car, all of which showed signs of gunfire and shelling.
A few meters away were the remains of another vehicle – completely burnt out, its engine spilling onto the ground. This, the Red Crescent says, was the ambulance sent to fetch Hind.
Its crew – Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun – were killed when the ambulance was bombed by Israeli forces, the organization says.
In a statement, the Red Crescent accused Israel of deliberately targeting the ambulance, as soon as it arrived at the scene on January 29.
“The [Israeli] occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite obtaining prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the scene to rescue the child Hind,” it said.
