Israel bombed a 12-story residential tower in Gaza yesterday after issuing an evacuation warning as part of its intensified military operations aimed at taking control of the famine-stricken city.
“The gates of hell are opening” in the Palestinian enclave, Tel Aviv warned.
"The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), led by the Southern Command, attacked a multi-story building used by Hamas in Gaza City. The building contained Hamas infrastructure used to prepare and execute terrorist plots against IDF personnel," an Israeli statement said.
The Mushtaha Tower in Rimal, a pre-war upmarket neighborhood, was hit by missiles, witnesses said. Gaza resident Ahmed al-Boari said families fleeing Israeli operations in other parts of the city had taken refuge in and around the building.
"Before the attack, precautionary measures were taken to limit damage to the civilian population, including advance warnings, the use of precision munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence," the Israeli statement added.
An hour before the bombing, the IDF claimed to have “identified significant terrorist activity by the Islamic resistance movement in a wide variety of infrastructure in Gaza City, especially in high-rise buildings” and stated that it would carry out “precise and targeted attacks” against the group’s infrastructure in the coming days.
Al-Shifa Hospital reported 27 deaths in Israeli attacks between Thursday night and Friday morning, including six members of a single family.
The previous day's offensive left 72 dead, marking 700 days of the Tel Aviv attack."The death toll from the Israeli aggression has risen to 64,300 martyrs and 162,000 wounded since October 7, 2023," the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that"the lock on the gates of hell in Gaza is being lifted" and stressed that the army's operations against the strip "will be intensified."
"When the door opens, it will not close, and IDF operations will intensify until the murderers and rapists of Hamas accept Israel's conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and their disarmament," Katz warned, stressing that the group"will be destroyed."
The non-governmental organizations Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al Mezan Human Rights Center, and Al Haq pledged to continue cooperating with the International Criminal Court despite the sanctions imposed by the United States, which the United Nations deemed"unacceptable" and urged Washington to lift.
In this context, the World Health Organization (WHO) recorded in August a hundred cases and 11 deaths from Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in Gaza, a disease that causes muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis, reported its director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“The lack of food and clean water and cramped living conditions are leaving people with weakened immune systems exposed to more illnesses. More than 100 cases of GBS were reported last month.”
"It is not known for certain what causes it (GBS), but in most cases it occurs after a bacterial or viral infection," the WHO stated on its website. It also explained that"it can be contracted after influenza or other viral infections, such as cytomegalovirus, the Epstein-Barr virus (characterized by fever, sore throat, and extreme fatigue), and the Zika virus."
