Heavy rains have inundated over 1,542 tents housing displaced civilians in the Gaza Strip in the past two days amid Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave, the Civil Defense Service said on Wednesday.
“Hundreds of tents were flooded with rainwater at a level exceeding 30 centimeters,” the agency said in a statement.
“Many people were reported to be shivering from the cold as their belongings were damaged by the rainwater,” it added.
The Civil Defense has announced that 1,500 tents have been flooded, which means 1,500 families are affected as a result of the rain.
The service said torrential rains have swept away 497 tents in Gaza City, 210 in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, 170 in Rafah and 665 in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The Gaza Strip has been hit by a cold wave and torrential rains since Sunday, bringing more misery to the territory’s 2.3 million population.
Local health authorities said Monday that at least seven people, including six babies, froze to death due to the winter cold in the enclave, according to Anadolu.
The Israeli army has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed over 45,500 victims, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, reducing the enclave to rubble.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
'We plead for someone to save us from this war' – distraught Palestinian woman exclaims
The Civil Defense in Gaza reports that over 1,542 tents sheltering displaced people are flooded by heavy rainwater over the past two days. Families have no alternative shelter pic.twitter.com/8J2AvqDCGK
Palestinian writer and artist Walaa Jumaa al-Ifranji, husband Ahmed Saeed Salama and her sister Shatha were killed at dawn, Wednesday in Israeli shelling targeting a house in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza Strip.
Their bodies were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah amid great sadness from the intellectuals and writers community in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Ifranji began her journey with writing an Arabic novel before moving from writing on paper to itching on stones and wood and chains and rings.
The Israeli occupation continues targeting Gaza's creative leaders, with the recent loss of the talented artist Walaa Jumaa Al-Ifranji.
Known for her strength, innovation, and success in both the arts and entrepreneurship, she was a pioneer in the handmade gift shop business… pic.twitter.com/KCSvnkLlXk
The young novelist was originally from Gaza City and when the war started soon after 7 October, 2023 she and her family were forced to move to the Nuseirat camp.
Before what has become a black day for the people of Gaza, Walaa was working in a shop called “Surprise” that prepares gifts in the upscale, but no more, Al-Rimal neighborhood in the center of Gaza City.
However, like hundreds of thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip, she lost her livelihood due to the consequences of displacement to the areas south of the Gaza Valley as the Israeli army forced the people to keep moving from their destroyed homes.
The Israeli army continues its war on the Strip for the 446th day and which has resulted in the death of 45,338 people and the injury of 107,764 according to the latest statistics published by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
A new investigation conducted by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has revealed a massacre committed by the Israeli military, killing over 15 Palestinians and injuring others, including women, children, and the elderly, in an air strike targeting a mosque in Gaza City during dawn prayers.
Euro-Med Monitor investigated the Israeli attack on Al-Hassan Mosque in Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, Gaza City, during dawn prayers on 16 November 2023, concluding that no evidence was found of any military targets, such as objects or armed individuals, inside the mosque or in its surrounding area at the time of the attack.
According to the investigation’s findings, at approximately 4:45 am on Wednesday, 16 November 2023, Israeli aircraft struck Al-Hassan Mosque in the Al-Sanafur area of Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, without any prior warning. The attack involved one or two heavy, high-explosive bombs and occurred just as worshippers began their dawn prayers.
When we entered the mosque after the Israeli bombing, we found no trace of anyone who was inside at the time. All of them were torn into pieces, there was no sign of anyone
Ezz Al-Din Maher Kraim, 18, esident of the area and the son of one of the massacre’s victims
The Israeli air strike destroyed the mosque, one of the largest in the area, within seconds, collapsing it onto the worshippers inside. Only remnants of its entrance and the two surrounding minarets remained. The attack resulted in the deaths of all worshippers present, with most of the bodies reduced to fragments.
The attack also resulted in casualties and injuries of varying degrees in a house adjacent to the mosque. Additionally, several nearby structures, including garages used for car repairs, carpentry, and washing, were destroyed. The air strike also caused damage to residential buildings and facilities surrounding the mosque in the area.
As part of its investigation into the military attack, Euro-Med Monitor employed its standard investigative methodology, beginning by collecting preliminary data related to the incident. Field teams were dispatched to the attack site to document the human and material damage and verify the absence of any military presence or armed activities in the area at the time of the attack.
The field team conducted personal interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, including testimonies from six residents of the area and relatives of the victims who remained in the neighbourhood despite the forced displacement of most of its population following the mosque’s targeting. The team also documented the names of the deceased and injured.
In addition to on-site visits and gathering testimonies from survivors and witnesses, Euro-Med Monitor’s team analysed video footage and photographs capturing the aftermath of the attack and the crime scene. Satellite imagery was also reviewed, revealing the extent of the massive destruction to the site before and after the air strike.
Ezz Al-Din Maher Kraim, an 18-year-old resident of the area and the son of one of the massacre’s victims, recounted to Euro-Med Monitor’s team: “When we entered the mosque after the Israeli bombing, we found no trace of anyone who was inside at the time. All of them were torn into pieces, there was no sign of anyone.”
Euro-Med Monitor was able to identify 10 of the victims, including a young girl, a woman, and eight men, two of whom were elderly. Some victims remain unidentified as their bodies were torn apart or remain buried under the rubble.
The Israeli attack on the mosque lacked any justification based on military necessity. Moreover, the Israeli army has offered no explanation or justification for this crime. The attack constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law principles, including distinction, proportionality, and the obligation to take precautions—fundamental rules that Israel is required to uphold at all times without exception.
As such, this attack constitutes a cluster of fully-fledged war crimes committed by the Israeli army against civilians protected under international humanitarian law, as well as against a place of worship classified as a civilian object safeguarded by the same law.
This crime, which directly targeted civilians with death and injury, also amounts to a crime against humanity due to its occurrence within the context of a widespread and systematic military campaign carried out by Israel against Gaza’s civilian population for over a year. Furthermore, this massacre qualifies as an act of genocide, part of Israel’s ongoing campaign since 7 October 2023 to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza.
Therefore, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reiterates its call to the international community to fulfil its legal international obligations by working to halt the ongoing genocide in Gaza using all available means. The prevention and punishment of this crime are international legal obligations incumbent upon all states without exception. This is an absolute obligation towards all, ensuring the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from all Palestinian territory, including Gaza, and the dismantling of all Israeli military bases, barriers, and checkpoints.
Furthermore, Euro-Med Monitor urges the International Criminal Court to examine and investigate all crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, including the Hassan Mosque massacre, as well as the thousands of other massacres carried out by the Israeli army in the strip. It also calls for the expansion of investigations into individual criminal responsibility for these crimes to include all those accountable, and for the swift issuance of arrest warrants against all perpetrators.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric branded Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu a war criminal for his actions in Gaza and other parts of Palestine.
Speaking at the “Palestinian Christmas: Light of Hope from Bethlehem to Chile” event, Boric on Wednesday criticized Netanyahu over Israel’s attacks on Gaza, now into their 14th straight month.
“There is no room for half-measures in the defense of humanity. We are gathered here today to defend humanity,” he said at the capital Santiago’s Palestinian Stadium.
“We are deeply pained and shaken not only by what is happening in Gaza but also by the events in the West Bank,” he added, referring to illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and Israeli soldiers attacking Palestinians there.
Boric stressed that Netanyahu’s actions constitute war crimes and “barbarity,” and added: “I choose humanity. What Benjamin Netanyahu has done is a war crime, a crime against humanity.”
Boric called for redoubling efforts toward peace.
Since October 2023, Israel’s attacks in Gaza have killed over 45,000 people and left most of the enclave an unlivable ruin, with survivors on the brink of starvation.
Chile’s Palestinian community has celebrated the “light of hope” tradition since 2021.
The country is home to some half a million people of Palestinian descent according to Anadolu.
CROSSFIREARABIA – Israeli warplanes struck the home of journalist Mohammad Baalousha, Saturday, killing him instantly with no let up on the open murder of Palestinian journalists.
The latest strike on his home on the Ahmad Yassin Street in the Saftawi neighborhood of Gaza City killing is trending on the social media.
He becomes journalist number 194 to have been killed by the Israel since 7 October when the war on Gaza began.
Last January, Baalousha was injured by an Israeli sniper while reporting and was denied medical treatment for six hours, as Israeli tanks blocked his evacuation.
Nour Naim wrote: “Despite sustaining severe injuries in this war, he regained his strength and returned to work under harrowing conditions. He was known for his fearless reporting, including exposing the massacre of premature infants at Al-Nasr Hospital back in March 2024.
In this Israeli slaughter of the Gaza Strip about 400 journalists were injured and 40 others were arrested according to the Qatar Press Center.
“The number of journalist martyrs has risen to 195 following the martyrdom of journalist Mohammad Baalousha, a correspondent for Al-Mashhad Channel (a private Lebanese network based in Dubai), as a result of an Israeli airstrike on Gaza,” the Palestinian Journalists’ Forum said in a statement.
The Government Media Office in Gaza condemned in the strongest of terms the targeting, killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation, and called on all countries of the world to condemn these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in the Gaza Strip.
Muhammed Baalousha was the first journalist to report on the decomposing babies in Gaza last year.
The office also put on the American administration the United Kingdom, Germany and France for the killing of the journalist because the are the major suppliers of weapons to the Israeli government.
It called on the international community, international organizations and organizations related to journalistic and media work in all world countries to condemn the crimes of the occupation, deter it and prosecute it in international courts for its ongoing crimes and bring the criminals of the occupation to justice according to the Palestine Information Center.
CrossFireArabia
