At least 93 people have been killed or are missing after an Israeli air strike on the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Rescuers said a five-story residential building was hit, and videos on social media showed bodies covered in blankets on the floor.
There has been no immediate comment on the strike from Israel’s military, which began a new offensive in the area earlier this month after saying Hamas was regrouping there.
The so-called Israel Defense Forces, IDF, have conducted operations in the northern strip during the past two weeks, particularly in Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun areas.
The director of the local Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia, Hussam Abu Safia, told the AFP news agency that children were being treated there, and the hospital could barely continue its work because it lacked sufficient medical staff or medicines.
“There is nothing left in the Kamal Adwan Hospital except first aid materials after the army arrested our medical team and workers,” Abu Safia said.
Last week, the Israel Defense Forces stormed a hospital, claiming it was also housing Hamas fighters.
“Operations in northern Gaza are meant to prevent Hamas’s reformation, as alleged by Israel.
However, Hamas counters this by stating that most of its members have been going through the civilian population during these operations.
It said Tuesday it killed 40 “terrorists” in Jabalia, and in central Gaza, it said it “eliminated many terrorists” over the past 24 hours, including some who “attempted to plant explosives near the troops.”
Hundreds of thousands are being left in desperate conditions in a burgeoning humanitarian crisis in Northern Gaza.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, on Friday, said that “the Israeli military is subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation.”
He also found it unacceptable that Palestinian armed groups were reportedly operating among civilians, even inside shelters for the displaced, and thus endangered them.
