Mahmoud Basal, head of the Civil Defense Authority in the Gaza Strip, announced that Israeli occupation forces continued their intensive targeting of residential neighborhoods in Gaza City today, resulting in dozens of martyrs and hundreds of wounded, amid humanitarian conditions he described as “catastrophic and unbearable.”

The Civil Defense explained that the occupation “issued warnings to some buildings, but in return bombed other houses that were not warned in advance,” which caused heavy human losses. According to field data, more than 6,000 citizens were left homeless as a result of their homes being targeted in just one day.

“Barrels of fire and volcanic lava” in Gaza City

Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal described what is falling on Gaza now as “not just missiles, but barrels of fire and destructive volcanic lava burning the earth and everything on it,” stressing that what is happening represents “systematic ethnic cleansing” against the city’s residents.

Basal pointed out that the residents of Gaza City “are living in extremely harsh conditions under the siege and continuous bombardment,” warning that more than a million people inside the city are threatened with death if current Israeli policies continue. He added that thousands of children are at risk of death due to starvation, lack of basic necessities, and deteriorating health and humanitarian conditions.

“Blind madness” and targeting schools

The Civil Defense spokesman accused the Israeli occupation of reaching “a level of blind madness” in its military operations, by bombing schools where displaced people had taken refuge and targeting residential buildings in neighborhoods densely populated by civilians, resulting in the deaths of dozens of civilians and the injury of hundreds more.

He added that the recent raids “seek to destroy what remains of residential buildings to force citizens to leave the city,” as part of a policy aimed, in his words, at emptying Gaza of its inhabitants and forcibly pushing them toward what Israel calls the “narrow humanitarian zone” in the south of the Strip.

Ethnic cleansing in Gaza City and beyond

Basal emphasized that displaced residents are living in a state of extreme panic, amid a lack of shelters that would guarantee a minimum level of security and safety, which is exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

He described what is falling on Gaza as “not just rockets, but barrels of fire and volcanic lava burning the earth and everything on it,” stressing that what is happening “constitutes systematic ethnic cleansing of the civilian population.”

Urgent call for international intervention

Concluding his remarks, the Civil Defense spokesman called on the international community and humanitarian organizations to intervene immediately and urgently to stop what he described as “a series of genocide and ethnic cleansing,” stressing that “international silence on what is happening in Gaza encourages the occupation to continue its destructive policies against civilians.”

Featured image via the Canary

By Alaa Shamali

This post was originally published on Canary.