Dozens killed in Gaza’s Beit Lahia as Netanyahu celebrates Trump victory

Israel continued its deadly assault on the north of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing 15 people in an airstrike on a building where displaced people were sheltering in the town of Bet Lahia, according to Al-Jazeera Arabic.

Earlier, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that a mother and her three children were killed in an airstrike on a house in Beit Lahia.

She was identified as Shurooq al-Radhi, wife of Naseem al-Radhi, who is currently in Israeli detention.

On Tuesday evening, at least five people were killed when Israel bombed the Al-Zarqa area north of Gaza city, according to WAFA.

In the south of the Gaza Strip, at least three people were killed in an Israeli drone attack on a group of people near a school north of Rafah.

‘A fundamental crisis in our humanity’

The Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, under heavy attack by Israel for days, continued to suffer deadly and indiscriminate strikes, with children and babies harmed as a result.

“The Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza has become a besieged war zone,” the United Nation’s children’s agency UNICEF said in a statement.

“In the Gaza Strip, at least 4,000 babies are estimated to have been cut off from lifesaving newborn care in the past year because of sustained attacks on the hospitals earnestly trying to keep them alive,” it added.

“Vulnerable newborns and sick and wounded children in need of intensive care are being killed in tents, in incubators and in the arms of their parents. That this hasn’t galvanized enough political will to end the war, represents a fundamental crisis of our humanity,” the statement continued.

Netanyahu enthusiastic over Trump victory

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enthusiastically welcomed US President-Elect Donald Trump’s election victory, calling it “history’s greatest comeback”.

"Congratulations on history's greatest comeback! Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory!" Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.

On the other hand, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said that Trump’s victory was a test for his earlier claims that he could end the war in Gaza “within hours”.

Abu Zuhri said that the Democratic party’s “criminal stance” in support of Israel had caused it to lose the election.

“We urge Trump to learn from Biden’s mistakes,” he told Reuters.