Israeli strike on Gaza’s Beit Lahia believed to have killed 87, as siege on north continues

An Israeli air strike in Gaza’s Beit Lahia late Sunday is believed to have killed at least 87 Palestinians, the health ministry said, with several multi-storey buildings targeted in the attack.

At least 27 bodies were retrieved following the attack, while 60 others are believed to be still trapped under the rubble.

The health ministry said that over 40 people were wounded in the strike, some in a critical condition.

Graphic footage showed the aftermath of the strike, including bodies of children strewn across the ground and the seriously injured trapped under rubble.

The hospital director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, told reporters that a "large number of people" had been killed and many had been "transferred to the hospital amid a severe shortage of medical staff and supplies". He noted that many of them could die due to their inability to receive proper medical attention.

The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, described the attack on Beit Lahia as "horrifying scenes", reiterating that "nowhere is safe in Gaza".

Mounir al-Bursh, the director general of Gaza's ministry of health, said the number of wounded people streaming into hospitals compounded "an already catastrophic situation for the health care system" in northern Gaza, in a post on X.

Rescue efforts were further hampered as Israel cut off communications in the north, as the siege on the area entered its 16th day.

Israel’s military has cut off all access to food, water, aid, medicine, and essential services from the north, as it continues to bomb it from above and target people from on the ground.

Around 400,000 people are trapped in the north, with no one allowed to enter or exit.

Al Jazeera reporter Hani Mahmoud said the full extent of damage from the air strike is yet to be determined, as large chunks of concrete have blocked the paths to the bombed areas, making it difficult for emergency crews to reach people.

"More than half of the people who were killed are, in fact, people who were forced to evacuate from Jabalia and other parts," he said.

Among those killed in the attack in Beit Lahia were at least 10 relatives of the prominent Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent, Anas al-Sharif, who has documented Israeli atrocities since the start of the war.

An earlier Israeli attack on Jabalia killed at least 33 Palestinians.

Meanwhile, reports also stated that Israeli forces have destroyed all homes and infrastructure in the Block 2 area of the historic Jabalia refugee camp, despite Israel claiming in January to have defeated Hamas in northern Gaza and Jabalia.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 42,603 people since October 2023 and wounded over 99,795 others in the same time frame.

The war on Gaza has leveled entire neighbourhoods and plunged the enclave into a deep humanitarian crisis.