At least 87 people were killed or are missing under the debris after an Israeli air attack in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, authorities said.
The overnight raid hit several houses and a multistorey residential building, known as the Beit Lahiya Project, the Gaza Government Media Office stated.
On Sunday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said 87 people were killed or missing under the rubble after the attack, adding that more than 40 people were injured.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by a communications blackout and road obstructions in the north of the enclave, where a 16-day Israeli military siege has cut off access to food, water, medicine and essential services.
Beit Lahiya is a city in the north of the Gaza Strip close to Jabalia and Beit Hanoon. All three cities are severely affected by the Israeli offensive that has also resulted in severed phone and internet access.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said “the extent of the brutality of the latest attack” in Beit Lahiya keeps unfolding, “with many people still buried under massive piles of rubble”.
“A witness from the area described the massive explosion resulting from multiple air strikes shaking the very foundations of the surrounding areas,” he said.
Mahmoud said large chunks of concrete have blocked the path to the bombed-out areas, making it difficult for paramedics and Palestinian Civil Defence members to conduct rescue missions in Beit Lahiya, resulting in more casualties, the majority of them women, children and elderly.
“More than half of the people who were killed are, in fact, people who were forced to evacuate from Jabalia and other parts” of northern Gaza under Israeli siege, he noted.
Also reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said, “Civil defence teams are trying to pull people out from under the rubble, either with their bare hands or with minimum equipment,” adding that they were able to rescue a baby girl from the site on Sunday.
Among those killed in the attack in Beit Lahiya were at least 10 relatives of Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent Anas al-Sharif.
“Today, while covering the massacre by Israeli occupation forces in [Beit Lahiya], I was shocked to discover that one of the homes targeted in the airstrike belonged to my cousin,” al-Sharif wrote in a post on X.
An earlier Israeli military attack in Jabalia killed at least 33 Palestinians. Residents and medics said Israeli forces have been tightening their siege on the Jabalia refugee camp, the largest of the enclave’s eight historical camps.
Jabalia residents said Israeli forces besieged a number of shelters housing displaced families before they stormed them and arrested many men. Footage on social media showed dozens of Palestinian men sitting on the ground next to a tank, while others were led by a soldier to a gathering site.
The attack in Beit Lahiya came after Gaza health officials said three partially functioning hospitals treating severely wounded patients and sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza were now out of service after coming under intense Israeli fire.
Israeli forces bombed al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia early Saturday and have also shelled Kamal Adwan and the Indonesian hospitals in Beit Lahiya over the past few hours, Al Jazeera correspondents reported.
Tor Wennesland, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, condemned the attack in Beit Layiha and what he said were “horrifying scenes” unfolding there, adding “nowhere is safe in Gaza”.
In a post on social media platform X, Wennesland called for an immediate halt to attacks on civilians and emphasised the need to protect displaced Palestinians.
“This war must end. The hostages held by Hamas must be freed, the displacement of Palestinians must cease, and civilians must be protected wherever they are.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry on Sunday said at least 42,603 people have been killed and 99,795 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023.
The figures are likely far higher with an estimated 10,000 bodies buried in the vast debris of destroyed buildings throughout the Gaza Strip.
