Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continued for the 116 day, with airstrikes and ground attacks being carried out in various parts of Gaza in the last 24 hours. Scores of Palestinian civilians have been killed and injured, while tens of thousands of others have been forced to evacuate from areas in central and southern Gaza following Israeli orders and bombardment in those areas.
According to reports, airstrikes and ground attacks over the last 24 hours struck a number of areas throughout Gaza, including Gaza city, the Nuseirat refugee camp, Khan Younis, Rafah, among others. Israeli forces have continued to bomb a number of homes and residential neighborhoods in these areas, and have continued to attack a number of hospitals, such as Nasser hospital, al-Amal hospital, and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society headquarters in Khan Younis. Israeli forces also shelled a UNRWA shelter in Gaza city, which they subsequently raided and arrested dozens of Palestinians staying there.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has said that in the last 24 hours, Israeli forces have killed at least 114 Palestinians, along with injuring 249 others. The overall death toll since Israel launched its latest war on Gaza has risen to 26,751 Palestinians, along with 65,636 Palestinians injured. The majority of those killed and injured are women and children, with reports estimating upwards of 10,000 children killed so far. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has today accused the Israeli forces of carrying out mass executions across the Palestinian territory, as well as attacking hospitals, ambulances, and medics in an attempt to prevent them reaching and attending to those injured as a result of the Israeli bombardment.
Assassinations in West Bank widely condemned
The Palestinian Authority released footage on January 30 depicting undercover Israeli soldiers dressed as doctors and nurses entering the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin and assassinating three young Palestinian men using silenced guns. The incident has been widely condemned as a gross violation of international law and part of a systematic violation by Israel against Palestinian health infrastructure.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces carried out multiple raids across several cities and villages, including in and around the cities of Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin, Hebron, Bethlehem, Tulkarem, among others. In the last 24 hours, at least five Palestinians have been killed in separate military raids across the West Bank.
Aid groups condemn cuts to UNRWA funding
Following the decision by the United States and several other Western countries to suspend funding to the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), a number of human rights groups and aid agencies issued a joint statement in defense of the agency. The statement signed by 21 groups including ActionAid, Oxfam, Save the Children, among others, is titled “UNRWA Funding Cuts: A Death Sentence for Palestinians in Gaza and Region”. The organizations state: “We are outraged that some donors have united to suspend funding for UNRWA … amid a rapidly worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. UNRWA is the largest humanitarian agency in Gaza and their delivery of humanitarian assistance cannot be replaced by other agencies working in Gaza.”
Furthermore, Doctors Without Borders in a separate statement also said that it is “deeply alarmed by the decision of some countries to suspend their funding to UNRWA … which is a lifeline for millions of Palestinians in Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the region,” adding that much more aid is needed to meet the needs of the civilian population, not less.
The World Health Organization (WHO) termed the Israeli allegations against UNRWA staff of being complicit in the October 7 military operations by Palestinian resistance groups as a “distraction” from what is unfolding “every day, every hour in Gaza, including the continuous intense bombardment and shelling of shelters, schools, hospitals and other designated safe areas as well as from Israeli measures and actions preventing the supply of food, water, electricity, among other basic and essential items.
