AMN / WB DESK
At least 39 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across Gaza, medics said on Thursday, including at least 20 people killed in an attack that set ablaze tents sheltering displaced families in a camp.
Israeli strikes also hit a hospital in the north, killing a 16-year-old boy who used a wheelchair, among others, according to the hospital’s director. Strikes were also reported in Gaza City, medics said.
In Rafah, near Egypt, an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians on Thursday, medics said. Three others were killed in a strike on the eastern city of Shejaia, reports VOA quoting medics.
The strikes came as Amnesty International, in a report released Thursday, accused Israel of committing genocide in the territory.
The London-based group concluded that Israel and its military have violated the 1948 U.N.-backed Genocide Convention, which defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
The nearly 300-page report covered a nine-month period beginning in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to capture of about 250 hostages. Israel has since carried out a massive ground and aerial campaign on the Palestinian enclave. There are still about 100 hostages held in Gaza, with about one-third believed to be dead.
Israel said the report was “entirely false and based on lies” and denounced Amnesty International as a “deplorable and fanatical organization.”
Amnesty International said it came to its conclusion based on hundreds of “dehumanizing and genocidal statements” by Israeli officials, as well as ground reports from Gaza. The report said 15 Israeli airstrikes carried out from October 2023 through April 2024 killed 334 civilians, including 141 children. Amnesty said there was no evidence that any of the strikes were directed at military objectives.