Israeli airstrikes have destroyed apartment blocks and killed dozens of people at a refugee camp in northern Gaza on the 25th day of a conflict that the United Nations said has become a “graveyard” for children.
At least six airstrikes hit residential areas in the Jabalia refugee camp on Gaza City’s outskirts on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people and injuring about 150 people, Hamas officials said.
Video footage showed at least 47 bodies pulled out of the rubble and rescue teams searching for survivors amid twisted metal and two huge craters. The Hamas-run health ministry called the attack a “heinous” massacre.
The Israeli military said it had targeted the camp to kill Ibrahim Biari – a key Hamas commander linked to the group’s 7 October attack on Israel who, it said, had taken over civilian buildings in Gaza City with his fighters.
Interviewed on CNN and asked if the Israeli military had known there were civilians in Jabalia, a spokesperson, Lt Col Richard Hecht, said Israel had attempted to minimise civilian casualties in a complex operation: “This is the tragedy of war […] We’ve been saying for days: ‘Move south, civilians that are not involved with Hamas, please move south.’”
Tuesday also saw fierce clashes between Israeli troops and Hamas militants and dire warnings from aid agencies of faltering aid efforts and “atrocious” conditions for civilians.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire and urged all sides to respect international humanitarian law. He said: “I condemn the killing of civilians in Gaza and I am dismayed by reports that two-thirds of those who have been killed are women and children.”
Bombardments have killed at least 8,525 Palestinians, including 3,542 children, according to Hamas health ministry figures issued before the strikes on Jabalia.
“The numbers are appalling,” said a Unicef spokesperson, James Elder. “Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.” Without a ceasefire and greater humanitarian access into the Gaza Strip “we hurtle towards even greater horrors afflicting innocent children”, said Elder.
Craig Mokhiber, the director of the UN’s New York office of the high commissioner for human rights, resigned to protest against the organisation’s handling of what he called a “textbook case of genocide”.
Late on Tuesday, reports emerged of a deal in which about 80 severely wounded Palestinians would be allowed through the Rafah border crossing for medical attention in Egypt. US officials also said they had been working with Qatar and Egypt on a deal to allow American citizens to leave Gaza.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has ruled out a ceasefire and said the campaign to eradicate Hamas – which started the conflict on 7 October with a murderous onslaught in southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people – could last months.
“Hamas, with its psychopathic leadership and its sadistic murderers, must cease to be,” said Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser. “These monstrous terrorist organisations must never again be allowed to control the Gaza Strip.”
Hanegbi said that Israeli forces sought to avoid civilian casualties and encouraged civilians to relocate to “protected areas” in the south where they could receive food. “This is our commitment as a country that acts according to the laws of war. This is also the way to increase and preserve the legitimacy without which it would be very difficult to conduct the military campaign until the goal is achieved.”
Since the attack by Hamas, Israel, citing concern that Hamas would siphon aid, has restricted supplies to a daily average of 14 trucks of food, water and medicine. The UN says 100 trucks are the bare minimum to sustain 2.3 million people. Before the conflict 400 to 500 trucks entered daily.
Prodded by the Biden administration, which fears the Palestinians’ plight will fan unrest across the region, Israel on Monday promised a “big increase”, starting with 80 trucks scheduled to enter on Tuesday via the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Aid agencies said rubble-strewn streets, bombing, lack of fuel and public disorder impede the distribution of whatever aid arrives.
The conflict has claimed the lives of 67 workers from the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), complicating efforts to run 150 shelters that are overwhelmed with more than 670,000 displaced people. About 8,000 people are sheltering at – and clogging – a logistics base at Rafah. Even so the agency delivered hundreds of tonnes of flour to 50 Gaza bakeries, helping to lower bread prices.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said its Gaza City warehouses were severely damaged on Monday and out of service.
The World Health Organization said it had sent no aid to northern Gaza hospitals since 24 October because of a lack of security guarantees. Destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure would spread disease, said Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesperson. “It’s an imminent public health catastrophe.”
Rick Brennan, the WHO’s regional emergencies director, said “atrocious” conditions could lead to outbreaks of diarrhoea and respiratory and skin infections such as scabies.
The Israel Defence Forces and Hamas reported fresh clashes, especially around Gaza City, where Israeli tanks and infantry targeted tunnel entrances and rocket launch positions. Hamas fighters responded with machine guns and missiles. The IDF said two of its soldiers were killed and that Hamas had suffered dozens of casualties.
Hamas’s military wing pledged to release some of the estimated 240 hostages believed to be in Gaza. “We will release a certain number of foreigners in the next few days,” Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said in a televised address. Five hostages have been released so far, four through negotiation and one, Ori Megidish, through rescue by the Israeli military.
