Dozens killed in Gaza by Israel as Amnesty raises alarm over ‘unlawful’ displacement
Amnesty calls on Israel to revoke mass displacement order as WHO pledges to stay in Gaza City
At least 39 Palestinians, including two young children, have been killed in Israel’s relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip, medical sources said on Thursday. The deaths add to the 72 Palestinians reported killed in the previous 24 hours.
Ten people were killed in Gaza City alone, where Israeli forces have imposed a siege, striking residential buildings daily as they prepare for a major offensive against Hamas. According to The Times of Israel, citing military figures, around 200,000 Palestinians have been forced from Gaza City in recent weeks, in what Amnesty International has condemned as “unlawful and inhumane.”
Among Thursday’s victims were an infant and another Palestinian killed when tents sheltering displaced families near Yarmouk Street were hit. A child was also shot dead in the Bureij camp in central Gaza, while hospitals in Gaza City reported several more casualties following Israeli shelling of the Shujayea district. Further south, at least four people waiting for aid were killed in Rafah, and one person died in Khan Younis.
The Gaza Ministry of Health says the death toll from Israeli attacks since the war began has now reached at least 64,718, with more than 163,800 wounded.
Amnesty International has called on Israel to “immediately rescind” the mass displacement order in Gaza City, describing it as “cruel” and a violation of international humanitarian law. Senior Amnesty official Heba Morayef said the directive mirrors the mass evacuation of North Gaza in October 2023 and warned it “further compounds the genocidal conditions” Palestinians face.
Many residents are unable to leave due to costs, overcrowding, or lack of safe shelter. “There is no safe place in Gaza, including the so-called humanitarian zone,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has vowed to remain in Gaza City despite the evacuation order. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the designated zone lacks the capacity to host displaced families and called the situation a “human-made catastrophe,” urging an immediate ceasefire.
