New martyrs in Israeli bombing of Gaza and the closure of the Rafah crossing leads to the death of 292 wounded

The occupation army continues to target civilians, as 3 Palestinians were killed and others were injured on Wednesday, as a result of Israeli shelling of a gathering of citizens northwest of Gaza City, while the number of deaths from their injuries as a result of the occupation closing the Rafah crossing for 72 days rose to 292 Palestinians.

The General Directorate of Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip said in a brief statement that an Israeli attack on a gathering of citizens on Al-Bahr Street in the Al-Shati area north of Gaza City resulted in 3 martyrs and a number of injuries.

The Israeli occupation army continued its air strikes and artillery attacks on various areas of the Gaza Strip, mostly targeting civilians, according to previous statements by the government media office.

Earlier on Wednesday, Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal announced in a post on Telegram that 9 Palestinians were killed and several others were injured as a result of an Israeli drone attack on a gathering of citizens opposite Cairo School in the northern Ramal area of ​​Gaza City.

Eyewitnesses reported that shrapnel from the Israeli airstrike fell on the displaced people in the school and caused damage inside. They explained that the school houses thousands of displaced people, including children and women.

On Wednesday morning, the Director of the Supply and Equipment Department in the Civil Defense in Gaza, Muhammad Al-Mughair, said that the occupation army launched violent raids yesterday evening on the displaced people in the Al-Attar area west of Khan Yunis, the Al-Razi School in the Al-Nuseirat camp, and a gathering of civilians around the Sheikh Zayed roundabout in the northern Gaza Strip, which led to the martyrdom of 48 people.

In addition, the government media office in the Gaza Strip announced on Wednesday that the number of deaths due to their injuries as a result of Israel’s closure of the Rafah crossing for 72 days has risen to 292 Palestinians.

The office said in a statement: "The number of martyrs who succumbed to their wounds and were prevented by the Israeli occupation from traveling abroad to receive treatment due to the occupation's closure of the Rafah border crossing for 72 days, has risen to 292 martyrs."

He explained that the deceased were "among the wounded who should have received treatment in hospitals outside the Gaza Strip, but they were martyred while waiting for the Rafah crossing to be opened for travel." He also pointed out that "since the occupation closed the crossing, more than 3,500 patients and wounded have been prevented from traveling to receive treatment in hospitals outside the Gaza Strip."

He also pointed out that "there are 25,000 transfer requests registered with the Ministry of Health under the heading of travel to receive treatment abroad, but the closure of the Rafah crossing deprives these people of the ability to travel for treatment, which poses a risk to their lives and threatens their survival."

Israel has closed the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip since the army took control of it on May 7, while it also closed the Kerem Shalom crossing to the entry of aid on the fifth of the same month.

The media office in Gaza said that the health system in the Strip "is suffering its worst stages in light of the Israeli occupation's plan and its premeditated intention to completely destroy the health system and put all hospitals out of service by occupying them, targeting them, destroying them, or burning and completely blowing them up."

He cited the devastated health system in a number of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including “Nasser Medical Complex (in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip), the Indonesian Hospital (north), and other hospitals that the occupation forced out of health service and forced their staff to leave, killing 500 medical personnel and arresting 310 in its prisons so far.”

The office condemned "the Israeli occupation's removal of the Rafah crossing from service and the deprivation of more than 25,000 wounded and sick people from traveling to receive treatment abroad," calling on all international and human rights institutions to "condemn this heinous crime that threatens the lives of patients and the wounded."

The office held the Israeli occupation and the US administration "fully responsible for the continued closure of the crossings and contributing to the worsening of the humanitarian and health situation in the Gaza Strip, especially depriving the wounded and sick from receiving treatment in hospitals abroad."

He called on "the international community, the United Nations, various international organizations, and all the countries of the free world to pressure the Israeli occupation and the American administration to open the crossings immediately and urgently before a new humanitarian disaster occurs on top of the already catastrophic and critical situation in the Gaza Strip."

In a related context, the Commissioner of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, revealed on Wednesday that Israel had bombed at least 8 schools in Gaza in the past ten days, 6 of which belong to the agency.

“In an almost daily incident, at least 8 schools have been hit in the past 10 days, 6 of them UNRWA schools,” Lazzarini said in a post on the X platform, adding that “the war has robbed girls and boys in Gaza of their childhood and education.”

"The blatant disregard for international humanitarian law continues unabated, and all the rules of war have been violated in Gaza," he continued, stressing at the same time that "the loss of our humanity must not become the new norm," and he renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire.

The post was accompanied by photos showing the destruction of one of UNRWA's schools as a result of Israeli shelling, despite it being overcrowded with displaced people who had sought refuge there in search of safety.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has been waging a war on Gaza, resulting in about 128,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and deadly famine.

Tel Aviv continues this war, ignoring the UN Security Council resolutions to stop it immediately, and the International Court of Justice orders to end the invasion of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, take measures to prevent acts of genocide, and improve the dire humanitarian situation in the Strip.