Gaza in the dark after Israel bombs power lines

Israeli warplanes hit the Gaza Strip early 17 May. (Ashraf Amra APA images)

More than 200 Palestinians in the Strip have been killed since last Monday, including 60 children and 34 women.

By Maureen Clare Murphy  17 May 2021.

Human rights groups are calling for an urgent investigation by the International Criminal Court as Israel’s merciless pounding of Gaza enters its second week.

More than 200 Palestinians in the Strip have been killed since last Monday, including 60 children and 34 women, according to Al Mezan, a human rights group based in the territory.

Three of the women were pregnant when they were killed, according to the UN’s human rights office.

The fatality count is expected to rise as people remain under the rubble and unaccounted for two days after heavy airstrikes on residential areas of Gaza City overnight Saturday.

Nearly 1,000 others have been injured and some 58,000 people have been displaced within Gaza after Israel destroyed around 100 residential buildings over the past week.

The buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes include six towers, “three of which were completely destroyed,” Al Mezan said.

Displaced persons are seeking shelter at dozens of schools run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees.

As Al Mezan notes, Israel targeted UNRWA schools used as shelters in previous military offensives in Gaza, killing civilians displaced from their homes.

Al Mezan said that UNRWA had not officially opened their schools as shelters and that displaced persons are living “in classrooms without mattresses or blankets and without the provision of essential services, such as sufficient drinking water, food and adequate toilets.”

Read the full article at The Electronic Interfada.

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