Israel’s war against the besieged Gaza Strip continues for a 12th month, with at least 61 people killed in Israeli attacks on the Strip in the past two days and little sign of a respite in the Palestinian territory.
Israeli airstrikes killed more than a dozen people overnight Saturday, according to hospital and local authorities, as health workers wrapped up the second phase of an emergency polio vaccination campaign to prevent a mass outbreak.
According to Jazeera, Israeli artillery fire killed three women and two children east of the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Separately, the Gaza Civil Defense Agency said at least three people were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a school that had been converted into a shelter for Palestinian migrants. The Civil Defense Agency also said 20 people were wounded in an airstrike targeting the Amr ibn al-As school in the Abu Iskandar area of the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood north of Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it carried out a “precision strike” on the school, targeting “fighters operating from inside the Hamas command and control center,” located in the complex that previously housed the Amr ibn al-As school.
‘Constant Attack’
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azouum reports from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza City, where Israeli airstrikes have been relentless across the territory since early this morning, with the northern area particularly hard hit.
“The attacks were concentrated in the village of Beit Lahiya as Israeli forces shelled the area extensively with artillery,” he said.
“There was also an airstrike on an evacuation center in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City. There were reports of many casualties from this attack.”
In recent months, Israeli forces have struck several schools housing Palestinian settlers in Gaza City, claiming the strikes targeted Hamas fighters.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Israel’s war in Gaza has killed about 41,000 people so far. Most of the dead are women and children, according to the United Nations.
Protest in support of Palestine in London
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of central London on Saturday to protest Israel’s war in Gaza.
Protesters marched through the capital towards the Israeli embassy in South Kensington, chanting slogans and carrying banners.
Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego reports from London, “Pro-Palestinian protesters rallied in London this week, and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Britain would immediately suspend 30 of its 350 arms export licenses to Israel.”
“But for the people we spoke to here, this is not enough. As Lammy herself put it, it is no more than when Margaret Thatcher imposed a full arms embargo on Israel in 1982 for its involvement in the Lebanon War.
“But people here are demanding more. They want all arms exports to end immediately, because Israel has been waging war in Gaza for almost 11 months now and the situation is only getting worse.”
Call for investigation into murdered activist
The UN also called for a “full investigation” into the Israeli military’s killing of 26-year-old American-Turkish activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was protesting against illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank town of Beitah.
“We want to see a full investigation into the situation and hold people accountable,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a news conference, adding that civilians “must always be protected.”
The UN human rights office said Eygi was “shot in the head” while taking part in protests on Friday.
Her family also called for an investigation in a statement, saying “her presence in our lives was needlessly, illegally and violently taken away by the Israeli military.”
