Israeli attacks on police sites kill five in southern, central Gaza
At least five Palestinians have been killed in Israeli drone attacks targeting two police stations in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip and the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the south, as Israel continues its more than two-year genocidal war against the devastated enclave.
The attacks on Friday night were condemned by Hamas as undermining the efforts of mediators during a “ceasefire” phase. Israel rapes almost daily since October 10.
Medical sources from the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis reported the arrival of three bodies and several wounded following an Israeli military strike on a police checkpoint at al-Maslakh intersection in al-Mawasi. The sources said the strike took place in an area outside the control of the Israeli army and described the condition of some of the injured as critical.
In the central Gaza Strip, two Palestinians were killed and others injured in a similar Israeli drone strike targeting a police station at the entrance to the Bureij refugee camp.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the rising death toll from ongoing Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip reflects the Zionist occupation’s “blatant disregard for the mediators’ efforts and its complete disregard for the Peace Council and its role.”
Qassem added, in a statement, that Israel continues its war of extermination against the Palestinian people, despite some changes in form and method, indicating that “the speeches of the guarantor states on stopping the war lack real substance on the ground.”
Deadline for expulsion of humanitarian organizations
Meanwhile, Israel has ordered 37 humanitarian groups to suspend their operations in the occupied territories, a move described as having potentially devastating consequences for Palestinians, unless they hand over personal information on Palestinian staff by Sunday March 1.
The organizations warn that following these rules could put employees at risk, compromise humanitarian neutrality and violate EU data protection rules.
Seventeen international NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE International, challenged the order in Israel’s Supreme Court, saying they could be forced to shut down their operations.
Oxfam International said on Tuesday that the forced closure of aid operations in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory could begin as early as Saturday.
“The effect would be immediate and extend well beyond individual organizations to the humanitarian system as a whole,” Oxfam warned.
“In Gaza, families remain dependent on external aid amid continued restrictions on aid entry and new strikes in densely populated areas,” he said in a statement.
“In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, military incursions, demolitions, displacement, settlement expansion and settler violence are at the origin of growing humanitarian needs,” he adds.
Israel’s pressure on international humanitarian groups has been increasing for years and sharply intensified after October 7, 2023.
