The images of displaced Palestinians being burned alive by Israeli attacks sparked outrage across the world as Israel appears to be no closer to heeding international calls for a ceasefire.
by Aseel Saleh, Peoples Dispatch
A number of Palestinians were burned alive and dozens of others injured after Israel targeted tents of displaced people inside the premises of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah city with incendiary bombs in the early hours of October 14.
Four people have been confirmed killed so far, though more fatalities are expected to be confirmed. At least 70 people were injured in the attack.
The rapid spread of the fire was likely fueled by the flammable materials used for the construction of the tents, such as plastic and wood, essentially turning the camp into a furnace.
Horrifying scenes from the site of the incident were captured by people nearby, many of whom were unable to rescue people burning alive in the tents due to lack of water and other substances needed to extinguish the fire.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have unsurprisingly claimed that the deadly airstrikes targeted fighters of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) that were hiding out among civilians in the premises, without providing any evidence of the same.
The IOF has used the same pretext since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal aggression on Gaza in order to justify strikes on crowded shelters and tent camps.
The horrific incident is the seventh time this year that the IOF has targeted Al-Aqsa Hospital and marks another incident of forcibly displacing Palestinians in the past couple of weeks, according to Gaza’s media office.
The brutality of the attack sparked outrage globally, with many condemning it as yet another war crime in Israel’s long list of violations of international and humanitarian law since October 2023.
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti from the Palestinian National Initiative, decried the bombing as “a brutal war crime,” emphasizing that women and children were burned alive while seeking shelter.
Similarly, Doctors Against Genocide issued a statement condemning the targeting of health infrastructure sheltering displaced civilians as “egregious violations of humanitarian law and basic human decency.” The organization called the attack “an atrocity that defies all justification and demands global condemnation.”
October 14 marked another massacre in Gaza, in which at least 10 civilians were killed and 30 others injured by an Israeli artillery shelling at a food distribution center in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza strip.
Children and women were among the casualties that resulted from the attack, which took place on the ninth day of an Israeli siege blocking the entry of food and water to the camp.
The deadly attacks in Deir al-Balah and Jabalia were launched hours after the IOF launched airstrikes on UNRWA-run Al-Mufti School, which was sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat refugee camp in the northern Gaza strip. The airstrikes on the school resulted in killing at least 22 people, including 15 children, and injuring several others.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that the attack on Al-Mufti School was “another night of horror in the Gaza Strip.” The school had been designated for the second phase of a polio vaccination campaign, which began just hours after the attacks on October 14.
