Israel 'deliberately targets' bakeries to inflict 'largest amount of casualties'

The Israeli warplanes attacked the only bakery in the al-Mughazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza, killing at least ten people and wounding dozens of others, on Wednesday, 25 October. 

In response, the government media office in Gaza said that Israel is "deliberately bombing and targeting bakeries" as civilians line up in front to inflect the largest amount of casualties.  

In a press statement sent to The New Arab, Salama Marrouf, the head of the government office in Gaza, said, "An Israeli aircraft bombed a bakery in the Al-Mughazi camp after providing it with flour from the United Nations Relief and Works of Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA)."

He added that the bakery "was providing tens of thousands of the camp residents and the newly displaced."

The Israeli missiles demolished the bakery and damaged several homes surrounding the camp,  with at least 10 Palestinians killed and others injured, according to Maarouf. 

"This new war crime, which appears to be a systematic policy by the occupying Israeli state since the launch of its new war, is further evidence it is lying about hitting military targets in Gaza," Maarouf stressed. 

"There are already dozens of other evidence of such crimes in which Israel deliberately targeting civilians gatherings in front of bakeries, markets, and even hospitals or churches," he added. 

He stated that he "monitored and documented Israeli targeting at least five bakeries directly or its surroundings in different sites across Gaza, which has left dozens of martyrs and hundreds of wounded since the beginning of the aggression on 7 October."

For the 19th day, the Israeli army continued violent airstrikes that destroyed entire neighbourhoods in Gaza, killing 6,546, including 2,704 children, 1,584 women, and 364 elderly, and injuring more than 16,000 people, according to the Ministry of Health in the Strip.