Four days after Israeli soldiers took out four hostages and killed several hundred Palestinians inside the Nuseirat camp in Gaza, new information continues to emerge about what happened that day. Saturday’s incident is called a rescue operation by some, a massacre by others. According to what the eyewitness inside the refugee camp told a Palestinian journalist team with whom news collaborates, it was both. The video shows scenes from Saturday’s attack on Nuseirat. Israel retrieved four hostages, but the UN is shocked by the extent of civilian casualties in the operation. According to the health authorities in Gaza, 274 Palestinians were killed and 698 injured. The IDF estimates less than 100 “casualties”. Based on a speech from the Palestinian side, the rescue operation turned Saturday into one of the bloodiest days in Gaza in several months. The Nuseirat refugee camp houses a quarter of a million internally displaced persons. Supposed to have dressed up as Hamas soldiers It was thick with people on their way to and from a market close to their shop, when father and son Khalil Althrawi and Abed Al-Rahman Althrawi ate breakfast on Saturday morning. Sometime between 11 and 12, a large lorry filled with furniture and various household items, including gas stoves, stopped in the street, father and son Althrawi say. – It looked just like when new refugees come to the streets, says Abed. But out of the car came around 20 armed men dressed as Hamas soldiers, he says. Several eyewitnesses told the same thing to the media. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has not yet commented on whether the soldiers were in disguise. According to Abed, what turned out to be Israeli soldiers shot at everything that moved as soon as they got out of the truck. – If anyone moved or stuck their head out, they were shot. If anyone tried to take a picture or film, they were shot. They shot at our flat, at my brother and sister, he says. Hostage in the neighboring block Gissela was held by Hamas in two residential blocks in the middle of the Palestinian civilian population, according to Daniel Hagari in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Neither Abed nor Khalil had any idea that there were hostages in the neighboring building, they say. But they realized that quickly when they saw the scene unfolding before their eyes: Khalil said that the soldiers took out two ladders which they used to climb up to the balcony of a nearby flat. He estimates it took them one to two minutes to get there after getting out of the truck, then break in and shoot a man, his daughter-in-law, his son and another man. Abed calls the man “Doctor Ahmed”. This was Ahmed Al-Jamal, a doctor who the IDF has confirmed was killed in his apartment. According to the IDF, it was in this apartment that the hostage Noa Argamani was rescued from. Argamani and her boyfriend were kidnapped when Hamas attacked a music festival close to the border with the Gaza Strip on 7 October. Israeli Noa Argamani was abducted by Hamas on 7 October. She calls out desperately to her boyfriend Avinatan Or, who has also been abducted here. He is still inside Gaza. The son who was killed was Abdallah Al-Jamal, a journalist with The Palestine Chronicle who has also worked freelance for Al Jazeera. According to Abed, the fourth man in the apartment fired back at the Israeli soldiers. Bomb the camp after withdrawal The Israeli soldiers withdrew under “intense firing”, says the IDF’s Hagari to CNN. Abed and Khalil tell the news team that the soldiers took one or more Israeli hostages with them from the apartment. But before this happened, another neighbor came running into their shop with gunshot wounds to his stomach and arm, says Abed. – After the special forces pulled out, they evacuated everyone who was in the block, at least the children. Then they bombed the whole building, says Khalil. When they had withdrawn completely from the area, they started bombing the houses and streets from the air, he says. – The whole street was destroyed, says Abed and points around. – Our shop shook violently. Then I thought we were going to die. I asked the children to pray to God, says Khalil. Khalil said that the family and the neighbor sought refuge in his office in the basement. Abed, on the other hand, says that they sought refuge in a bathroom. – At first the injured neighbor was limp, then he fainted. I gave him first aid, says Abed. – The bombing was continuous from planes and helicopters. Both estimate that the bombing of the street lasted around 20 minutes. Treat the injured on the ground Due to the heavy bombing, many people in the refugee camp went to the nearest hospital. It is considered a safer place, says Adham Algesen, head of the emergency department at al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat, to the journalists in Gaza with whom news collaborates. While the doctor was busy treating the injured, he worried whether his family, who live close to the hospital, were among those killed. – After an hour, when things had calmed down, we were surprised by the huge number of injured. We received more than 250. About 40 percent of the injured were women and children. There are only 22 beds in the hospital. We treat most of them on the ground. We struggled with a lack of medical equipment and staff, says Algesen. Adham Algesen, head of the emergency department at al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat Photo: Jebril Abu Kmeil He describes it as “doomsday”. – There were so many killed and injured, we had one doctor for every four injured. There were many patients who did not receive treatment until after one to two hours. Many people died because we could not treat them, due to a lack of equipment and staff. When Algesen and the rest of the health personnel in the hospital in the refugee camp had stabilized the patients, they sent them on to al-Aqsa hospital. – Some patients had to wait for three hours because there were not enough staff there either. The UN human rights office is “deeply shocked” by the extent of civilian casualties following the operation. Both parties, both Israel and Hamas, may be guilty of war crimes, says a spokesperson. Horrific pictures and videos from Nuseirat on 8 June have been shared online and on social media. Are you wondering why your Instagram feed looks so different from news? Published 12.06.2024, at 19.10
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Witness tells after Israel’s rescue operation in refugee camp Nuseirat in northern Gaza – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
