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Palestinians mourn their relatives, including kids killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, outside a morgue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, September 23, 2024
PALESTINIAN officials say Israel’s strikes early today killed at least seven people in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis.
Many Palestinians fear that their plight will be forgotten as the tensions escalate in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel.
At least 15 others, including women and children, were injured in today’s strikes.
The civil defence said the dead include five people who were killed in a strike on the Abu Harb family house in the Qizan al-Najjar area.
Another strike hit a house in the Tahlia area in Khan Younis, killing at least two people, according to the rescue service.
The casualties from both strikes were confirmed in hospital records in Khan Younis.
Israel claims that it tries to avoid harming civilians but rarely comments on individual strikes.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war with a little over half being women and children.
It is likely that the death toll is far higher than this with many people still missing and likely trapped under the rubble of bombed-out buildings.
Israel invaded Gaza after Hamas staged a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage.
Around 100 of the captives are still being held in Gaza.
Meanwhile, as the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah grabs global attention, concerns grow in Palestine that – after nearly a year of devastating war – international concern has been diverted.
The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza have the same worry.
Nezar Zaqout, one of some 1.9 million Palestinians forced to flee their homes since the Israeli invasion, said: “We have become completely forgotten.
“There is no news about us in the media.”
Families of the hostages held by Hamas are also concerned.
Udi Goren, a relative of Tal Haimi, an Israeli killed on October 7, said: “My biggest concern is that all the public’s attention and the world's attention would be gone to the north.
“Eventually the hostages will just be completely left alone without anyone to bring them out.”
ROGER McKENZIE expounds on the motivation that drove him to write a book that anticipates a dawn of a new, fully liberated Africa – the land of his ancestors
While much attention is focused on Israel’s aggression, we cannot ignore the conflicts in Africa, stoked by Western imperialism and greed for natural resources, if we’re to understand the full picture of geopolitics today, argues ROGER McKENZIE
