Since the start of the war on October 7, Israel has killed at least 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children .
Qatar has condemned an Israeli “massacre against the defenceless Palestinian people” that targeted Gaza’s biggest refugee camp and killed at least 400 on Tuesday, just hours before a second strike hit the densely-populated area on Wednesday afternoon.
Doha unequivocally branded the attack on the Jabalia refugee camp as a harrowing “massacre” against the Palestinian people, who have faced Israel’s brutal three-week long onslaught on the enclave.
“Qatar strongly condemns the Israeli bombing of the Jabaliya Camp in Gaza, which resulted in the death and injury of hundreds of innocent people,” a statement from the Gulf country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs read.
“It considers this a new massacre against the defenceless Palestinian people, especially children and women, and calls on the international community to act quickly to stop the killing and destruction.”
Since the start of the war on October 7, Israel has killed at least 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children who represent more than 40% of the toll.
The ministry issued a stark warning in its statement, cautioning against the alarming expansion of Israeli attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israel’s targets in Gaza include “civilian objects, like hospitals, schools, population centres and shelters for displaced people,” the statement detailed.
“This is a dangerous escalation in the course of confrontations, which would undermine mediation and de-escalation efforts,” it said.
The statement further pressed the international community to acknowledge its moral and legal obligations in providing protection for the Palestinian people.
It urged the world to exert pressure on Israel, insisting that the regime must comply with international law and international humanitarian principles.
Tuesday’s massacre at the densely populated Jabalia, the biggest refugee camp in Gaza, killed around 400 people, mainly children, Palestine’s news agency (Wafa) reported.
“Shelters are built in close proximity to one another and there is a general lack of recreational and social space. In many cases, residents have had to add extra floors to their shelters to accommodate their families. Often, these lack proper design. Many live in substandard conditions,” the UN says.
Horrifying footage showed hundreds of victims being rushed to Gaza’s already overwhelmed hospitals, most of which have not been able to function under non-stop Israeli bombing as well as an absence of basic resources due to its crippling siege.
A large number of people are also still trapped under the rubble, Wafa’s correspondent reported. On Wednesday evening, Israel hit the camp again just moments after Hamas confirmed seven captives were killed in the initial strike.
At least 15 others were also killed when Israel targeted a residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) carried out a third airstrike at a house in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the west of Gaza city, where 10 others were killed.
Gaza’s authorities said the Jabalia refugee camp massacre is as deadly as the 17 October Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist Hospital massacre, in which the IOF killed at least 500 Palestinians seeking treatment and shelter.
A ‘final warning’
Speaking after the Jabalia massacre, Ashraf Al-Qudra, the Palestinian health ministry spokesperson, warned that the generators at the Al-Shifa hospital were “hours away” from fully shutting down, calling for the intervention of oil-producing nations.
“We are calling on all our brothers in oil-producing nations to urgently intervene and supply al-Shifa Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital with fuel that’s needed to save the lives of the sick and injured,” Al-Qudra said.
Israel has blocked all fuel entry into Gaza as part of a complete siege on Gaza that has left the Strip’s 2.3 million population without food, water and electricity.
Meanwhile, rights organisations have called out the global inaction as they witnessed the countless massacres in Gaza unfold.
In a statement on Tuesday, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a non-profit group, said the attack on the Jabalia refugee camp “should serve as a wake-up call to world leaders and politicians everywhere”.
“Their meek requests for compliance with international law are being ignored entirely. Israel has instead increased the ferocity of its indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks,” Melanie Ward, the chief executive of the MAP, said in a statement.
Ward further called for a ceasefire in Gaza that “will bring this bloodshed to an end”.
The United Nations has failed to achieve consensus on four resolutions seeking a ceasefire as Israel continues to dismiss any plans to halt the aggression under its efforts to wipe Hamas “off the face of the earth”.
The IOF has been advancing militarily in Gaza over the past two weeks under its plans to wage a full ground invasion into the Strip. Hamas fighters have been battling the IOF’s attempts to enter Gaza through several areas.
Meanwhile, reporters on the ground in Gaza said that Israel has yet again disrupted communications on Wednesday morning. This comes just days after Gaza was subjected to a complete communications blackout for almost 36 hours between Friday and Sunday.
The move was widely seen as Israel’s attempts to hide its massacres from the global view.
