Gaza Civil Defense says 2,000 Palestinians missing after Israeli troops withdrawal

The Civil Defense Service in the Gaza Strip says hundreds of Palestinians are reported missing in various districts of the war-ravaged coastal territory following withdrawal of Israeli military forces from those regions.

Mahmoud Basal, the spokesman for the Civil Defense, said in a statement on Sunday that more than 150 citizens were killed, and nearly 500 went missing following the pullout of Israeli soldiers from Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip.

He added that the Israeli army buries dozens of bodies using bulldozers before its withdrawal from any area in the Gaza Strip, adding that most of the dead bodies are women and children.

Describing the Israeli military’s actions as ethnic cleansing against the people of Gaza, Basal said that Israeli troops strip the citizens before killing them.

Basal said that many of the bodies were buried under the title “anonymous”, adding that the Israeli army uses weapons unknown before as the bodies “evaporated and turned into ashes.”

The Civil Defense Service in the Gaza Strip announced on Friday that hundreds of cases of respiratory diseases had been recorded in the Gaza Strip’s hospitals as a result of people lighting fires to prepare food due to the worsening cooking gas crisis in the region.

“Hundreds of cases of respiratory diseases have been recorded in hospitals as a result of citizens relying on lighting fires for several hours a day over the past six months.”

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The statement added, “The Israeli occupation’s continued prevention of the entry of cooking gas into the Gaza Strip, especially to Gaza City and the northern Strip, threatens a new humanitarian and health crisis in light of the ongoing aggression against our people.”

“For many months, citizens have been relying on alternative and primitive means of lighting fires using wood and charcoal, which has caused many to suffer from respiratory diseases due to the use of plastic and chemical materials to ignite the fires, which emit toxic gases,” it noted.

The statement warned of the worsening cooking gas crisis and the danger posed to the lives of residents, who have been suffering catastrophic conditions since the start of the Israeli aggression last October.

It called on the international community to pressure the occupying Israeli regime to allow the entry of cooking gas.

Israel launched its atrocious onslaught against the Gaza Strip, targeting hospitals, residences, and houses of worship since Palestinian resistance movements launched a surprise attack, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm, against the usurping regime on October 7.

At least 34,097 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and another 76,980 individuals have sustained injuries. More than 1.7 million people have been internally displaced during the war as well.

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