LONDON (WNAM MONITORING): An Israeli airstrike in central Gaza City on Tuesday destroyed a mosque and tents providing shelter at the site for displaced families.
Nearby homes and other civilian properties were also damaged or destroyed when fighter jets struck Al-Muttaqin Mosque, near a Young Men’s Christian Association building, Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency reported.
The attack left hundreds of Palestinians without shelter, worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis. The tents were being used by families already displaced by Israeli strikes that destroyed their homes.
Gaza’s religious affairs authority said this month that Israeli attacks had destroyed 1,050 mosques and damaged a further 191 since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023. There were 1,275 mosques in the territory before the conflict.
The strike on Tuesday came as daily attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza continue, despite a ceasefire agreement that took effect on Oct. 10 last year.
Maysa Yousef, an artist and mother of four from the central Gaza Strip, said a home near where she lives was also hit around the time the mosque was bombed.
“We have not seen a ceasefire for even a single day up to this moment,” she said. “Three years of death, shelling and destruction.
“The situation in my city has been dangerous for the past two weeks and the bombardment is getting closer to us quickly. People in the block next to mine have been evacuating for two weeks; those who could flee have fled, and those who could not are now surrounded by shelling, destruction and gunfire, like in the early days of the war.”
Last week, Yousef said, the Israeli army issued a warning to a family in central Gaza before bombing their house.
“People were preparing for the Tawjihi (national high school examination) results, and at night they received a warning,” she added. “When the warned families evacuated, Israel bombed the entire block. All 15 houses were completely destroyed.
“How many Tawjihi students were killed before the results were announced, even though they were among the top achievers? How many students were killed while going to buy sweets to celebrate, or on their way to sit the exam?”
She said the danger was also creeping closer in central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah area.
“East of Deir Al-Balah, just over two weeks ago, the yellow line had reached us even though we are far from Salah Al-Din Street, the main highway where they mark the yellow blockade line,” she added. “Within two days, (the Israeli bombardment) destroyed the entire east, blowing up whole blocks.”
At least 1,007 Palestinians were killed in Gaza between the announcement of the ceasefire in October 2025 and early April this year, according to local health authority figures. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has verified 629 of those deaths, including 269 women and children.
Since Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza on Oct. 8, 2023, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 174,000 wounded, and much of the territory’s critical infrastructure has been destroyed.
More than 1.9 million people, over 90 percent of Gaza’s population, have been forcibly and repeatedly displaced amid intensive Israeli bombardments, according to UN agencies.
The Young Men’s Christian Association is a community institution that provides youth, sports, social and humanitarian services to residents, regardless of religion.
