Hamas Reports 87 Dead in Israeli Airstrike

Gaza’s health ministry reported that 87 people were killed and over 40 injured in an Israeli airstrike on Beit Lahiya.

Many remain trapped under rubble. Israel said it was verifying the casualty reports and accused Hamas of exaggerating figures. Israel continues bombarding northern Gaza to target Hamas forces.

A senior UN official warned that the “nightmare in Gaza is intensifying” and the war “must stop now”.

“Horrifying scenes are unfolding in the northern [Gaza] Strip amidst conflict, relentless Israeli strikes and an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis,” said Tor Wennesland, the UN’s special co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

In a statement on Sunday, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry revised its death toll from 73 to 87 after the Israeli strike on Beit Lahia.

The earlier casualty figures were provided by Hamas late on Saturday.

The ministry also said that ambulance crews were unable to reach the site of the Israeli strike.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described the strike as a “precision” attack on a “Hamas terror target”. It told the BBC it was “doing everything possible to avoid causing harm to civilians”.

Dr Eid Sabbah, Kamal Adwan Hospital’s director of nursing, said the Israeli strike in Beit Lahia had completely destroyed several buildings, with “more than four, five residential blocks… razed to the ground”.

The strikes targeted an entire residential square, Dr Sabbah said, in between Abu Jidian roundabout and Al Qassam mosque.

Dr Sabbah added that dozens of people were killed and many were wounded “some of whom reached the hospital, some of whom remain under the rubble”.

He urged for an end to the “siege” on hospitals in northern Gaza and “for life to return to normal… before it’s too late, before our nation is exterminated”.

Several images – including the one below – have since emerged on social media showing the treatment of the injured from Beit Lahia at the Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Israel began a renewed military offensive in northern Gaza in early October, saying it is trying to prevent Hamas from regrouping in the area.

In particular, Israeli forces have surrounded and bombarded the densely-populated Jabalia area, which includes an urban refugee camp – with at least 33 people reported killed in a strike late on Friday.

Humanitarian groups have warned that virtually no aid has entered the area in the past few weeks. Israel’s own statistics show that aid deliveries to Gaza as a whole have collapsed when compared with the same period in September.

On Saturday, the UN’s top humanitarian official, Joyce Msuya, said that Palestinians in northern Gaza are enduring “unspeakable horrors” and called for these “atrocities” to stop.

Israel has repeatedly denied it is preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza – but on Tuesday the US told it to boost access within 30 days or risk having some American military assistance cut off.

bn last October, the Hamas-run authorities say.

Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages to Gaza. In response, Israel launched a ground offensive against Hamas and airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Beirut. Israel’s air force struck Hezbollah’s command center and an underground weapons facility, claiming precautions were taken to reduce civilian casualties. Around 160 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel. Lebanon’s army reported three soldiers killed in an Israeli airstrike. Hezbollah, supported by Iran, continues to attack Israeli positions in solidarity with Hamas, as cross-border violence escalates.

 

 

Source: BBC