December 2024 Nuseirat refugee camp attack

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December 2024 Nuseirat refugee camp attack
Part of the Israel–Hamas war, Gaza genocide
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Nuseirat refugee camp
Location within the Gaza Strip
Location Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Palestine
Date12 December 2024
Attack type
Airstrike
Deaths33
Injured50
PerpetratorsFlag of the Israel Defense Forces.svg  Israel Defense Forces

On 12 December 2024, the Israeli Air Force conducted an airstrike on a residential block in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Deir al-Balah Governorate which resulted in at least 33 civilian deaths and approximately 50 injuries. The airstrike targeted a postal facility being used as a civilian shelter, and caused significant damage to adjacent residential buildings.

Background

Nuseirat (Arabic : مخيّم النصيرات) is a Palestinian refugee camp located in the middle of the Gaza Strip, [1] five kilometers north-east of Deir al-Balah. The Nuseirat refugee camp has been bombed repeatedly since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. On 18 October 2023 the Grand Nuseirat Mosque was bombed and destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. [2]

On 8 June 2024, the IDF and Yamam rescued four Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Nuseirat, including Noa Argamani, during a rescue operation. [3] [4] The Gaza Health Ministry reported that at least 274 Palestinians were killed and 698 wounded in the Israeli airstrikes on the refugee camp during the operation, causing international outrage and the attack deemed a massacre. [5] [6]

Attack

On 12 December 2024, the Israeli Air Force conducted an airstrike targeting a high-rise residential structure containing a postal facility, which was being used as civilian shelter for Gazans displaced due to the ongoing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. Emergency medical personnel reported that the airstrike caused the structural collapse of the high-rise with smoke rising from the debris, and caused significant damage to adjacent residential buildings. [7] [8]

Casualties

Two medical facilities, al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza and al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, received casualties from the strike. The strike resulted in significant civilian casualties, with at least 33 confirmed deaths and approximately 50 individuals sustaining injuries, with children comprising the majority of the wounded. The airstrike primarily impacted the al-Sheikh Ali extended family, who comprised the majority of casualties. [7] [8] The Palestinian Health Ministry incorporated these casualties into their broader statistics of the conflict, which by this point had documented over 44,800 Palestinian fatalities since October 2023. [8]

Responses

The Gaza Government Media Office characterized the attack as a "barbaric and heinous massacre," emphasizing that Israeli forces had knowledge of the civilian nature of the target area. The office specifically noted the presence of residential buildings housing "civilians, children, women, and displaced persons". [7]

Israeli authorities did not immediately issue a statement regarding the strike. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuseirat refugee camp</span> Refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, State of Palestine

Nuseirat is a Palestinian refugee camp located in the middle of the Gaza Strip, five kilometers north-east of Deir al-Balah. The refugee camp is in the Deir al-Balah Governorate, Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the refugee camp had a population of 31,747 and the surrounding Nuseirat municipality had a population of 54,851 in 2017. The camp was established after the 1948 Palestinian expulsion during the 1948 Palestine war.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuseirat rescue and massacre</span> 2024 Israeli operation and mass killings

On 8 June 2024, during an operation to rescue hostages held in the Nuseirat refugee camp, the Israeli military killed at least 276 people and injured over 698, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Palestinian health officials. The operation's objective was to recover hostages taken during the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel. The Israeli military acknowledged fewer than 100 Palestinian deaths.

On 21 June 2024, Israeli forces attacked refugee tent camps in al-Mawasi, Gaza Strip just outside an area designated as a humanitarian safe zone. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that 25 people were killed and 50 others were injured in the two rounds of bombing. The bombing was the second Israeli bombardment of the al-Mawasi refugee camp in under a month, with an attack on 28 May killing over 21 people and injuring 64 more.

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On 11 September 2024, the Israel Defense Forces bombed the UN-run Al-Jawni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp of central Gaza. The school had been sheltering people displaced by the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, including women and children. Per rescuers, 18 people were killed and more than 44 others were wounded. Among the killed were six United Nations workers, including the manager of the UNRWA shelter. This made it the highest death toll for UN staff in any single incident of the Israel–Hamas War and raising the number of UNRWA staff killed since the beginning of the war to 220. The attack was one of a number of attacks on schools during the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the fifth bombing of the Al-Jawni School since October 2023.

On 6 October 2024, the Israel Defense Forces bombed the Shuhada al-Aqsa mosque and the nearby Ibn Rushd school in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The airstrike killed at least 26 Palestinians and wounded more than 93 others. The mosque and school had been sheltering people displaced by the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, including women and children.

References

  1. "Nuseirat Camp". Archived from the original on 2019-06-16. Retrieved 2024-01-07.
  2. "Bombing Worshippers Inside a Mosque in Gaza – PHOTOS". Palestine Chronicle. 19 October 2023. Archived from the original on 18 April 2024. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  3. "Four hostages seized at Nova festival freed in Gaza raid". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  4. Hjelmgaard, Kim; Tran, Ken; Santucci, Jeanine (2024-06-08). "Noa Argamani among 4 hostages rescued from Gaza, Israeli forces say: live updates". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  5. Graham-Harrison, Emma (9 June 2024). "Outrage over 'massacre' in Gaza as Israel rescued four hostages". The Guardian . Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  6. "IDF faces increased scrutiny as more details come out in wake of deadly hostage rescue". NBC News. 2024-06-15. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Palestinians decry 'barbaric' Israel strike on Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  8. 1 2 3 "25 Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on Nuseirat refugee camp". euronews. 2024-12-13. Retrieved 2024-12-13.