The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have intensified their air and ground aggression on the Gaza Strip, targeting innocent civilians in temporary shelters, houses, and tents, and expanded their ground assault in a serious escalation of the crime of genocide against Palestinians. This comes amid the international community’s silence and failure to stop this bloodshed, which has been ongoing for 18 months.
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights’ (PCHR) field documentation, the IOF, in the past hours, has launched dozens of airstrikes and fire belts, detonated an explosive-laden robot, and bombed residential neighborhoods and buildings sheltering displaced people, who had fled intense bombardment. As a result, hundreds have been killed and injured.
This comes while famine begins to spread across the Gaza Strip following the shutdown of bakeries and the depletion of most goods, food supplies, medicines, and medical consumables. This exacerbates the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe threatening the lives of 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and trapping them between two horrific choices- to die from bombardment or slowly perish from hunger and lack of medical treatment.
According to our researchers’ documentation, at around 01:40 on Friday, 04 April 2025, the IOF’s warplanes targeted al-‘Aqqad family’s 3-storey house in al-Manara neighborhood, southeast of Khan Yunis. As a result, 24 people, including 7 children and 9 women, were killed, while others were injured in addition to others remaining missing under the rubble of the destroyed house.
In the early hours of Friday, the IOF expanded their aground assault on al-Shuja’iayia neighborhood in eastern Gaza Strip, amid intense airstrikes and artillery shelling. The IOF claimed that this assault aimed to tighten their grip over the area and expand the so-called buffer zone.1
On Thursday dawn, 03 April 2025, the IOF detonated an explosive-laden robot near a residential square and launched successive airstrikes on inhabited houses on al-Mansoura Street in al-Shuja’iyia neighborhood, east of Gaza City. Most of these houses belonged to Abu Hein, Jundiyya, and Sersawi families. As a result, 31 people, including 15 children and 5 women, were killed, while dozens more were injured. In the morning, the IOF issued evacuation orders for residents in al-Shuja’iyia neighborhood, al-Jadida and al-Turkman neighborhoods, and eastern al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City.2 This forced thousands of people to flee on foot in search of alternative shelters in western Gaza City, while dozens were forced to evacuate to central and southern Gaza Strip via al-Rashid Street.
At approximately 13:00 on Thursday, an Israeli drone targeted a tent for displaced people in al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis. As a result, a man, his two children, and another child were killed, while others were injured. The killed were identified as: Ahmed Fathi Abu Ghali (37), his two children Baraa’ (14) and Mohammed (12), and Raghda Naseer Abu ‘Amra (14).
At around 16:16, the IOF’s warplanes targeted Ibn al-Arqm School sheltering thousands of displaced people in al-Tuffha neighborhood in Gaza City. The airstrike killed 29 people, including 18 children, a woman, and an elderly man, while dozens more were injured, some of them in serious condition. Less than an hour later, the IOF’s warplanes launched several airstrikes on al-Tuffah neighborhood, killing three.
Moreover, the IOF’s warplanes launched dozens of airstrikes, targeting houses, tents, gatherings, and agricultural lands. As a result, dozens were killed and injured. Meanwhile, IOF continues to isolate Rafah City from Khan Yunis, carrying out widespread destruction and intense airstrikes. The full extent of the damage remains unknown.
Our staff face immense challenges and risks while striving to document, as much as possible, the IOF’s genocide due to the intense bombardment, lack of any safe zones, no transportation, communication difficulties, and repeated displacement—just like the rest of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MOH), the Israeli attacks killed 86 Palestinians and injured 287 others in the past 24 hours (as of midnight yesterday). This brings the death toll since the resumption of the IOF’s military aggression on 18 March 2025 to 1,249, while the number of injured has risen to 3,022. Meanwhile, 50,609 Palestinians have been killed, while 115,063 others have been injured since 07 October 2023.3
PCHR reaffirms that the ongoing and daily escalating expansion of this Israeli military aggression, amid the international community’s silence and inaction, is a disgrace to all states and organizations that remain silent or justify this genocide. This silence underscores the urgent need for immediate international intervention to put an end to the IOF’s systematic crimes and violations committed against the Palestinian people.
In line with its responsibilities, PCHR calls on the international community to take decisive and urgent measures to stop the ongoing genocide and hold the Israeli leaders accountable for their atrocious crimes before the international justice. PCHR also urges the State Parties to the Genocide Convention to fulfil their legal obligations and take urgent action to protect the Palestinian civilians from the genocide, mass killings and grave human rights violations.
