Amidst rising death tolls in Gaza and southern Israel after war broke out in the region over the weekend, a number of cultural sites in the occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza Strip have been hit by Israel’s intense airstrikes and artillery fire.
Since Saturday, October 7, when Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an aerial assault against Israel and infiltrated heavily fortified barricades to storm Israeli border settlements and a music festival, Israel’s barrage of retaliatory airstrikes targeting the besieged Gaza Strip has devastated the occupied Palestinian territory where some two million people currently live, among them an estimated 1 million children.
A number of religious sites have also been hit by Israeli airstrikes, including the Al-Sussi Mosque in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp and the Al-Amin Muhammad Mosque. In videos and photos circulated on social media, people can be seen sorting through the ruins of what was formerly the Al-Amin Muhammad Mosque, a prominent religious space located in Khan Yunis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip.
A report in the Greek City Times earlier today described the destruction of the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza; however, the article was corrected after the church stated on its Facebook page that the news was incorrect.
In addition to the 123,000 people internally displaced in Gaza, the severe bombardment of Israeli missile strikes and artillery shelling against at least 426 targets in the densely populated strip has decimated residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, including four residential towers in Gaza City, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The explosions also hit a school sheltering refugee families operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the UN agency reported.
Saturday’s attack followed decades of rising tensions between the groups due to Israel’s violent expansion in the region and regime of “apartheid” imposed on Palestinian civilians, as it has been characterized by multiple human rights groups. As of today, October 9, the escalating armed conflict has killed at least 900 Israeli people, more than 680 Palestinian people, and nine American individuals, according to the Associated Press. The heavy rounds of bombing and shelling have also wounded thousands more, Al Jazeera reported.
This morning, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege” on the 140 square-mile Hamas-controlled enclave, which had been under an Israeli air, land, and sea blockade for the past 16 years. “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” Gallant said in a video statement.
Hamas officials have also told local reporters that they have abducted dozens of hostages; Israeli authorities estimate that the militant group is holding approximately 150 people captive, according to the New York Times.
“Depriving the population in an occupied territory of food and electricity is a form of collective punishment for actions committed by individuals, which is a war crime, as is using starvation as a weapon of war,” Omar Shakir, who serves as the Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, told Hyperallergic in a statement.
Hyperallergic will continue to update this post. This is a developing story.
