At least 61 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza over the past two days, as Israel’s war on the besieged territory enters its 12th month with no signs of respite in the Palestinian territory.
More than a dozen people were killed in Israeli air strikes from Saturday night until overnight, while health workers were carrying out the second phase of an urgent polio vaccination campaign organised to avert a mass polio outbreak, hospital and local officials said.
Three women and two children were killed east of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza as a result of Israeli shelling, sources told Jazeera.
In addition, Gaza’s Civil Defense Agency said at least three people were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a school that serves as a shelter for displaced Palestinians. Civil Defense also said 20 people were injured in an attack targeting the Amr Ibn al-Aas School in the Abu Iskander area of the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, north of Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it carried out a “precision strike” on the school, targeting “fighters operating inside a Hamas command and control centre… located inside the compound that previously served as the Amr Ibn al-Aas school”.
‘Continuous attacks’
Al Jazeera’s Tariq Abu Azzum, reporting from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, said there have been continuous Israeli attacks across Gaza since this morning, especially in the northern part.
He said, “The number of attacks on the town of Beit Lahiya has increased, and Israeli forces are carrying out heavy artillery shelling of the area.”
“An evacuation center in the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City was also hit by airstrikes. Several casualties were reported in the attack.”
In recent months, Israeli forces have attacked several schools for displaced Palestinians, many of them in Gaza City. They claim these attacks targeted Hamas fighters.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel’s war on Gaza has so far killed nearly 41,000 people. According to the United Nations, most of those killed are women and children.
Pro-Palestinian demonstration in London
Meanwhile, a large number of protesters rallied in central London on Saturday against Israel’s war on Gaza.
Protesters chanted slogans and carried banners as they marched through the capital towards the Israeli embassy in South Kensington.
“Pro-Palestinian protesters held a rally in London that week after British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said his country would immediately suspend 30 of its 350 licences to export arms to Israel,” Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego reported from London.
“But for the people we have spoken to here, this step is not enough. As Lammy himself has said, this is certainly not like 1982, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher imposed a complete arms embargo on Israel because of its participation in the Lebanon war.
“However, people here are demanding that more be done. They want all arms exports to stop with immediate effect as we are entering almost 11 months of Israel’s war on Gaza and the situation is only getting worse.”
Demand for investigation into the murder of the worker
The UN also called for a “full investigation” into the killing of American-Turkish activist Ayşenur Ezgi Egi, 26, by Israeli forces while she was protesting against illegal Israeli settlements in Beita in the occupied West Bank.
“We want to see a full investigation into the circumstances and that people be held accountable,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a news conference. He added that civilians “must be protected at all times.”
The UN human rights office said Igy was “shot in the head” while taking part in a protest on Friday.
His family also demanded an investigation, saying in a statement that “the Israeli military unnecessarily, unlawfully and violently ended his presence in our lives.”
