Killing the Mayor of Nuseirat – why Israel assassinated Dr. Iyad Maghari
The mayor of Nuseirat, Dr. Iyad Maghari, who was assassinated in an Israeli strike
Abdallah Aljamal reports in The Palestine Chronicle on 7 June 2024:
After bombing a school run by UNRWA, which is currently housing over 50,000 refugees, at dawn on Thursday – killing at least 40 – the Israeli army continued to target the camp’s residential areas and civilian infrastructure.
On Thursday evening, an Israeli airstrike assassinated the mayor of Nuseirat, Dr. Iyad Maghari.
This is not the first time Israel has targeted civilian authorities in central Gaza. Last November, Israeli occupation forces assassinated the mayor of Al-Zahraa, Marwan Hamad, killing him and all members of his family. At the beginning of April 2024, the mayor of Al-Maghazi, Hatem Al-Ghamri, was also assassinated.
Moreover, the headquarters of the municipalities of Al-Bureij, Al-Zawayda, Al-Mughraqa, and Al-Zahraa were completely destroyed, while the headquarters of the municipalities of Nuseirat and Deir Al-Balah were significantly damaged, as a result of Israeli military strikes.
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Before the war, Nuseirat was home to over 120,000 citizens, making it one of the largest refugee camps in the Gaza Strip.
Since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on October 7, however, the Nuseirat refugee camp has become a destination for tens of thousands of displaced people. It is believed that the number of residents of Nuseirat at the moment may have doubled, in fact, tripled since the start of the war.
Recently, more refugees reached the central region, following the Israeli invasion of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 6. The mayor of Nuseirat, Dr. Maghari continued to serve the residents of the camp and the displaced refugees until the very moment he was assassinated.