Israel carried out more massacres in central and southern Gaza on Tuesday, July 16. One of the airstrikes targeted an UNRWA-run school sheltering displaced families in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, killing at least 23 people and injuring 73 others. Palestinian journalist Mohammad Meshmesh, was among the people who were killed in Nuseirat, pushing up the death toll of journalists in Gaza to 160 since October 7.
Israeli airstrikes hit different locations in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza on Tuesday. While one of the airstrikes targeted a house killing at least 5 people, the other airstrike targeted a car killing at least 17 people and injuring 26 others.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) stated on Tuesday that approximately 70% of its schools in the Gaza strip have been hit since the beginning of the war. The agency highlighted that 90% percent of these schools were used as shelters when they were hit, which resulted in killing 539 people.
Three Syrian children were killed in an Israeli drone strike that hit a farm in Um al-Toot town in southern Lebanon. Two other Syrian people were killed earlier on Tuesday in another Israeli drone attack that targeted a motorcycle on the international road linking Marjayoun and Nabatieh in southern Lebanon.
IOF faces major shortages
While the Israeli occupation government continues in its relentless multi-front war, it is facing fierce protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews (or the Haredi) who took to the streets on Tuesday after the Israeli army announced on Sunday that it will begin to recruit the Haredi. The Haredi clashed with Israeli police and blocked a major highway in Tel Aviv.
The Haredi have been exempted from being enlisted in the Israeli army, since the Israeli occupation state was founded 76 years ago. They refuse to serve in the army over fears that it will impact their religious way of life, which is centered on intensive Torah study.
However, Israel’s current shortage in military personnel has forced it to turn to the ultra orthodox. Additionally, the Israeli occupation army admitted on Monday July 15, that it has suffered from a shortage in tanks and ammunition, after being damaged in battles with the Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza and the West Bank.
The spokesperson of Saraya al-Quds, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, Abu Hamza, asserted in a televised speech on Tuesday that the Palestinian resistance groups managed to burn and damage IOF’s tanks and vehicles in Al-Shujaya and Tal al-Hawa in the Gaza Strip, as well as in Tulkarm in the West Bank with locally manufactured explosive devices. Abu Hamza also warned the Israeli occupation forces about remaining in the Netzarim corridor and the Philadelphi corridor as a condition within the current ceasefire negotiations. “Our people and our resistance will never give you flowers in these corridors.”
In his speech, Abu Hamza also called for “forming a unified Islamic Arab front to exterminate the Zionist entity,” and he confirmed that freeing the Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails is a top priority for the Palestinian resistance groups. Furthermore, he pointed out tat the Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to the most gruesome forms of torture and abuse by the Israeli Druze police, warning the the heads of the Druz sect to “stop this conduct which will be confronted with retaliatory responses today, tomorrow or anytime.”
