ISRAELI OCCUPATION KILLED 49 PEOPLE IN THREE DAYS IN THE BESIEGED GAZA STRIP

On the first day of Israeli occupation attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip, on Friday August 5th, Israel's occupation forces killed 10 people and wounded at least 79.

Among the victims were 3 civilians, one of them a child, and 7 members of the Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades.

Israeli occupation forces started with killing Islamic Jihad commander Tayseer Mahmoud Muhammad Al-Jabari(52), a member of the Military Council of Al-Quds Brigades, and another member Salama Muharib Abdullah Abed(38) in an  air-strike on the 14-story tall Palestine tower in the al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City. 

On the second day of Israeli occupation attacks, on Saturday August 6th, 19 people were killed, among them 8 children, and the number of wounded rose to 236. The number of non-civilians killed included several members of the Al-Quds Brigades.

The third day, Sunday August 7th, brought 14 more deaths, including at least 7 children, and the number of the wounded rose to 358. Among the dead was one member of Hamas' armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, Mujahid Ahmad Muhammad Afaneh.

Following days have brought the death of several wounded people, including children, bringing the death toll 49, of whom 17 are children and 4 women. According to one count, 36 of the killed were civilians. The 13 possibly include only member of Islamic Jihad and doesn't include the aforementioned al-Qassam Brigades member, as Hamas was not involved in the fighting, and a traffic police Mahmoud Ahmad Dweik(20 or 21).

As in previous Israeli occupation attacks against the Gaza Strip in 2008-09, 2012, 2014 and 2021, families have suffered immense losses of life: On Sunday two Israeli occupation attacks, in the Fallulah cemetery and the al-Bureij refugee camp, killed 5 children (including 4 cousins from a single extended family, the Najms) in the former case, and a father and his 3 children in the latter.

Israeli occupation claimed that that the incident at Fallulah cemetery and another fatal explosion which killed several people, including 4 children, at the Jabalia refugee camp the day earlier, would have been caused by rockets fired by the Islamic Jihad, but eventually admitted it had carried out the attack on the cemetery. The responsibility for the explosion at the Jabalia refugee camp is still open.

Israeli regime claims that the three days of attacks were 'preventive', and that Islamic Jihad would have been planning attacks on the occupation in retribution of the kidnapping of its local leader in the Jenin refugee camp on the West Bank.

According to both Palestinian and Israeli sources, though, Islamic Jihad and Israel were in talks via Egypt to calm the situation, which led to Islamic Jihad not expecting the attacks to take place.

SOURCES: Al-Jazeera, IMEMC, Middle East Eye, Palinfo Center, WAFA News Agency.