Israeli strikes on Gaza's Beit Lahia kill 66, hundreds more wounded

Israeli aircraft also struck Gaza City on Thursday, killing at least 22 people according to Gaza's civil defence.
2 min read
21 November, 2024
Israeli airstrikes have been striking Gaza daily for 14 months [Photo by Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images]

Israeli airstrikes targeting residential buildings around the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza have killed at least 66 people, according to reports.

More than 100 people were also injured in the strike on Thursday morning, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which reported that hospital staff are having to pull people out of the rubble.

The strike is the latest in a series that has killed dozens of civilians as Israel continues its focus on northern Gaza around Beit Lahia and the Jabalia refugee camp - the area where the Kamal Adwan hospital is situated.

An Israeli strike on a five-story building in Beit Lahia earlier this week killed at least 50 people, according to authorities.

The director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital described the situation as an "extreme catastrophe" on Wednesday, admitting that the medical facility was losing patients due to a lack of medical supplies, with many patients being admitted with malnourishment.

Chief of the UN's Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that in northern Gaza people "run for their lives in vicious circles and have been deprived of humanitarian aid for more than 40 days now".

Israel has been focusing its assault on northern Gaza for the past 40 days, with the military announcing on Wednesday the death of its 800th soldier during a combat incident in the enclave.

Attacks also continued in other areas of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, with Wafa reporting that Israeli shelling on Nuseirat killed two people.

The Gaza civil defence announced on Thursday that another 22 people had been killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a house in Sheikh Radwan in Gaza City.

Meanwhile, UNRWA said in a post on X that seven out of 19 humanitarian-supported bakeries are actively running across the Gaza Strip.

The agency said that no bakeries in Rafah and besieged north Gaza were operating and that fuel shortages in the enclave have caused production in the Gaza governate to decline by 50 percent.

Israel's war on Gaza, which has been ongoing for 14 months, has killed 43,985 people and wounded a further 104,092.