At least 78 Palestinians have been killed so far in Gaza as the Israeli military began the ground invasion of Gaza City on Tuesday, as part of its plan to occupy the Palestinian territory, reported Al Jazeera.
Palestinians were forced to flee with just minutes to spare before intensified Israeli attacks, as the army pushed deep into the densely populated region. At least 20 people have been killed in central Gaza City’s Daraj residential neighbourhood alone since Israel launched the ground invasion.
Overnight bombing reduced a residential block in the north of the city to mounds of rubble. One man squeezed his head and hand beneath a concrete slab in a desperate search for survivors.
“There were about 50 people inside, including women and children. I don’t know why they bombed it,” said Abu Abd Zaqout, adding it had housed his uncle’s family.
“Why kill children sleeping safely like that, turning them into body parts?” he added.
“We pulled the children out in pieces.”
In a statement, the Zaqout family said 23 of its members were killed in the strike on their home.
A sea of destruction surrounded the site of the strike, with those aiding the rescue effort dwarfed by mounds of crushed concrete and metal.
One family attempted to load belongings into a car parked on a barely usable debris-strewn road nearby.
“At night they bombed an entire quarter, three houses and the neighbouring houses,” said Gaza City resident Mohammed al-Bardawil.
“All of (the dead) are children, elderly people and women. They are all under the rubble.”
Gaza’s civil defence agency – a rescue force operating under Hamas authority – said at least 12 bodies had been recovered after more than eight hours of search operations at the site.
Israel launched the attack shortly after visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that the United States would back the plan.
Rubio told reporters as he left Israel: “We think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen. We don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks to go.”
The attack, which has sparked massive outrage across the globe comes as a UN probe has confirmed Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
“The Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) said in its report.
The investigators said explicit statements by Israeli civilian and military authorities along with the pattern of Israeli force conduct, “indicated that the genocidal acts were committed with intent to destroy… Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group.”
The report concluded that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant have “incited the commission of genocide and that Israeli authorities have failed to take action against them to punish this incitement.”
The United Nations rights chief on Tuesday said that evidence of a “genocide” unfolding in Gaza was mounting.
“We see the piling up of war crime after war crime after war crime, of crime against humanity, and potentially even more,” Volker Turk told AFP and Reuters, adding: “It’s for the court to decide whether it’s genocide or not, and we see the evidence mounting.”
Meanwhile, Palestine’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday called for “exceptional and urgent international intervention” to protect civilians and halt Israel’s invasion of Gaza City, noting that efforts to stop the genocidal war through diplomacy had proven a “failure.”
“The ministry views with grave concern the boastful statements by the occupation government about the start of the invasion of Gaza City and the endangering of the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians, who are at risk of being killed and displaced,” the ministry said in a statement on X.
“The ministry calls for exceptional international intervention to stop this major crime and maximise political and diplomatic solutions that guarantee the immediate cessation of war and aggression, the protection of civilians, the prevention of their displacement from the Strip, the immediate release of hostages and prisoners, and the sustainable delivery of aid,” it said.
International outrage
Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City has sparked outrage from several nations, with the UN calling for an end to the “carnage.”
The United Nations rights chief condemned Israel’s ground assault as “totally and utterly unacceptable” and demanded an end to the “carnage.”
“The whole world screams for peace. Palestinians, Israelis scream for peace. Everyone wants an end to this, and what we see is a further escalation which is totally and utterly unacceptable,” Volker Turk told AFP.
“It is absolutely clear that this carnage must stop.”
The European Union warned that the attack will add to the toll of death and destruction and worsen an already “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the territory.
“The EU has consistently urged Israel not to intensify its operation in Gaza City,” EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.
“A military intervention will lead to more destruction, more death and more displacement, and we have been clear that this will also aggravate the already catastrophic humanitarian situation and also endangers the lives of hostages,” he said.
British foreign minister Yvette Cooper condemned the attack as “utterly reckless and appalling,” calling for an immediate ceasefire.
“It will only bring more bloodshed, kill more innocent civilians and endanger the remaining hostages,” she said in a post on X.
Germany slammed the attack as “completely wrong”, urging talks towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
“The renewed offensive towards Gaza City is… the completely wrong path,” said Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul. “We reject this and have made this clear to the Israeli government.”
