GAZA CITY, Palestine

Hamas on Sunday described the Israeli army's targeting of a group of children playing at the al-Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City a “horrific crime.”

At least five Palestinian children were killed and 12 others, including women and children, were injured in an Israeli airstrike on the al-Shati refugee camp.


“The targeting by the terrorist Zionist occupation of a group of children playing in al-Shati camp is a horrific crime and a moral degradation that exceeds all limits and norms,” Hamas said in a statement.


Israel “kills merely for the sake of killing and ethnic cleansing,” it added.


Hamas called for "filing lawsuits before all competent courts, most notably the International Criminal Court, in preparation for the trial of Zionist leaders, war criminals, for these crimes and atrocities that will not be subject to a statute of limitations, and the blood of our children will remain a curse that haunts them everywhere."


Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.


More than 42,200 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 98,400 injured, according to local health authorities.


The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.


Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.




*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala