RESCUERS continue to search for 80 missing people after multiple Israeli air strikes on Shujayea neighbourhood in Gaza City killed at least 35 Palestinians on Wednesday.
At least 21 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn with the majority in Gaza City where Israel continues its relentless bombardment.
Our sources on the ground report that the Israeli army has fired more than five artillery shells targeting the eastern area of Jabalia in northern Gaza on Salah al-Din Street.
Salah al-Din Street is the main north-south thoroughfare in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, 10 Palestinians detained from Gaza by Israeli troops were returned to the territory, saying they suffered constant abuse while imprisoned.
One of the freed men, Fayez Ayoub, looked gaunt and walked with difficulty, supported by another man.
“I swear, Dad, every moment we waited for you to be released,” his daughter Marah Ayoub told him, crying. He responded, “Torment, torment.”
Detained by Israeli troops in November 2023, he said, “One hundred fifty-six days have passed with us in agony. We are tortured and in pain.”
Detainees were abused every day and had little sleep, he added.
His daughter said he was seized by Israeli soldiers just after being released from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza after suffering fractures to his pelvis and spine from an Israeli air strike.
“Was this how my father was? And is this what he has become?” she said, referring to his aged appearance. “He wasn’t like this.”
Israeli attacks have killed 1,523 people and wounded 3,834 since Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas on March 18 and restarted its war on Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 50,887 Palestinians are confirmed dead and 115,875 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. The Government Media Office updated its death toll to more than 61,700 saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks and more than 200 taken captive.