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Photo: Published by Haaretz

Men stand next to the bodies of Palestinians, which the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says were killed in an Israeli strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Thursday. Credit: Ebrahim Hajjaj/Reuters
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'Executing Civilians in Broad Daylight'

by Jack Khoury and Rawan Suleiman for Haaretz
Jun 19, 2025 11:32 pm IDT

The Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, says the number of people killed exceeded 80 since Thursday morning, following airstrikes and artillery barrages by the Israel Defense Forces.

The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Palestinian Civil Defense officials in Gaza said 16 civilians were killed while waiting for humanitarian aid on the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, and 14 people, two of them children, were killed in a strike on a residential compound near the Omari Mosque in Jabalya in the north.

Witnesses reported comprehensive bombings in several places. Video clips on social media showed difficult images, especially in the Shati refugee camp marketplace, such as burned bodies and people collapsing among the stalls, and cries of panic.

Members of the Civil Defense, run by Hamas, told Haaretz that Israel is taking advantage of the fact that international attention is on the war with Iran to increase the intensity of the attacks in Gaza without oversight or criticism.

One Civil Defense volunteer told Haaretz, "Israel is practicing a policy of executing civilians in broad daylight. There's no distinction between children, women or elderly people. Anyone who tries to survive becomes a target." He said the attacks take place in areas with no IDF soldiers present.

The Civil Defense has warned of a complete breakdown of the health and medical system in Gaza, with its main hospitals, among them Shifa, unable to admit such large numbers of wounded people.

Last week, the Gaza Health Ministry and humanitarian organizations were reported to have begun evacuating medical departments at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip. There is concern in Gaza that the hospital, which is the second-largest in the Gaza Strip, may cease operations due to military activity in the area.

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