Video showing the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) allegedly targeting Palestine University’s main campus building in Gaza has been widely shared on social media prompting request from the United States for clarifications from Israel. In the video, the abandoned university building is apparently seen before explosions which were likely caused by bombs concealed within. The bombs erupt and send shockwaves in all directions, as seen in the video.
While US refrained from commenting on the video citing insufficient information, it was reported that witnesses in Khan Yunis, the main city in southern Gaza, witnessed gunfire and air strikes after the Israeli military targeted the area which Tel Aviv claims is proliferated by Hamas members and leaders.
The Palestinian Red Crescent also reported artillery fire near Al-Amal hospital, and confirmed 77 deaths as the Israeli military’s Givati Brigade engaged in combat, using tank fire and air support, news agency AFP reported.
This comes as the conflict, which is now in its fourth month and showing no sign of ending, has exacerbated tensions across the Middle East. More than 24,400 Palestinians have been killed while the United Nations said that a quarter of the 2.3 million people trapped in Gaza are starving. In Israel, around 1,200 people were killed during the October 7 attack by Hamas and some 250 people taken hostage.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls by the United States to take steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state after the war. Responding to this, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said that there can be “no security and stability in the region” without a Palestinian state.
“Without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the borders of 1967, there will be no security and stability in the region,” Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesperson said as per news agency Reuters.
