Israel killed 71 in prison attack, Iran says, as Gaza strikes go on

Israel’s attack on Evin Prison in Iran’s capital killed at least 71 people last week, Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir says, with the dead including family members of detainees.
Israeli forces killed at least 60 people in Gaza on Saturday, hospital sources tell Al Jazeera, including at least nine children in an attack on Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood, as hunger continues to stalk the territory.Settler violence in West Bank up 30 percent this year: Report
There have been 414 “nationalist crimes” committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank so far this year, up from 318 during the same period last year, reports Israeli Army Radio.

The crimes include arson, stone-throwing, vandalism, assaults, and other forms of “violent confrontations”, according to “security establishment data” cited by Army Radio.

A senior Israeli military officer said the settler crimes are not only growing, but also getting severe.Two more killed in Gaza City, today’s death toll at 17
An Israeli attack has killed two people in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, according to a local medical source cited by our colleagues on the ground.

A separate attack in the city’s Daraj neighbourhood, to the east, also injured a woman, our colleagues report.

According to medical sources, the total number of people killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza so far today has risen to at least 17.

Israeli strike on Iran prison – ‘worst way to do that’
The death toll is much higher than expected, with at least 71 people killed in Israel’s attack. Among those killed were inmates, their family members, administrative staff and guards.

Evin Prison was built in 1971 during the previous Pahlavi regime. Up until the Islamic revolution in 1979, most of the people held there were members of the opposition, including one of Iran’s former presidents, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

This prison is not dedicated to specific crimes; we see political prisoners, journalists, financial offenders, and foreign detainees. In 2018, the United States put Evin Prison on its sanctions list, and the European Union did the same in 2021 because of human rights violations.

Iranians are saying, if Israel’s aim was to free the prisoners, definitely the worst way to do that is to bomb the facility itself and kill civilians.

Several children killed as Gaza civilians continue to bear brunt of Israeli attacks
Heavy bombardment continues across the Gaza Strip, as we continue to get reports of a series of deadly incidents since dawn today.

Two children were killed following an Israeli air strike on a residential house in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, at the eastern end of Gaza City.

Further south, the city of Khan Younis has witnessed a series of deadly attacks in the past few hours. The Israeli military struck a makeshift tent in the coastal area of al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, killing at least five Palestinians, including a woman and two children.

Witnesses report that booby-trapped explosives have been used to blow up entire residential neighbourhoods, as the Israeli military says it is concentrating operations in Khan Younis to defeat Hamas battalions there.

However, civilians continue to bear the brunt of these ongoing ground operations. In Deir el-Balah, a series of explosions have been heard. Residents report a wave of panic, especially in the eastern areas, forcing some families to flee in search of safety.