Dozens killed in Gaza as Israel attacks Hamas infrastructure

Gaza’s government media office said 38 people died and 50 were injured on Saturday as a result of attacks on four neighbourhoods in Gaza City.

People make their way through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment at al-Tuffa neighbourhood in Gaza City on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Israel said it carried out airstrikes on Hamas military infrastructure in the area of Gaza City on Saturday, an attack that Palestinians said killed dozens.

The Israeli military made the comments in a short statement and said more details would follow soon. Local Gaza media reports said the strike hit a residential area in the Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City and in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood. Photos taken by Reuters showed Palestinians in Al-Shati standing in the debris of destroyed buildings in what appeared to be the aftermath of a strike.

Mahmoud Arafat, 80, who lives near Al-Shati refugee camp, said he heard large explosions coming from the camp. “It was multiple loud Israeli airstrikes that made the ground shake beneath us,” he said. “We don’t have a clue what happened after.” Hamas condemned the strikes, saying they hit unarmed civilians and called on the international community to stop Israel’s attacks. Gaza’s government media office said 38 people died and 50 were injured Saturday as a result of attacks on four neighbourhoods in Gaza City including Al-Shati and Al-Tuffah. The reason for the disparities between the Israeli and Hamas accounts wasn’t immediately clear.

Mahmoud Ziara, 26, who lives in Al-Tuffah, said that he was out of the neighbourhood when the strike occurred but went back afterward. “I saw more than three buildings destroyed,” he said. One was a sewing factory that had people working inside. “A lot of dead people are still under the rubble,” he said.

Israel invaded Gaza after the October 7 Hamas-led attack that killed 1200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 240 hostages, according to Israel. Roughly 38,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the start of the war, according to Gaza health authorities. The figures don’t say how many were militants.

The high number of civilian casualties has led to international condemnation that has isolated Israel. The U.S. is also concerned about the death toll and has pressed Israel to limit its operations and strike a ceasefire deal.

While it continues to provide Israel with much-needed support including armaments, the U.S. has closely monitored its conduct in the war, especially since the start of an operation in Rafah in early May. It is currently holding up a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, which the White House has said is under review because of concerns over civilian casualties.

Israel says that its military campaign in Gaza is aimed at destroying Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group that operates among civilians, and that it takes precautions to limit civilian deaths.

In a separate strike Friday, as many as 25 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in an area that is housing displaced Palestinians in the southern city of Rafah, according to the Gaza health ministry and aid organisations. Palestinians blamed Israel for the strike, which they said took place in the area of Al-Mawasi, which has been designated by the Israeli military as a humanitarian zone.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said that the strike damaged its office in Gaza and that its nearby field hospital received 22 killed and 45 injured following the incident. Israel said the incident was under review but an initial inquiry showed there was no direct Israeli attack against a Red Cross facility. Reporting couldn’t independently confirm where the strike took place.

European Union foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the strike and called for an independent investigation.

Israel began its military operation in Rafah, a densely populated urban area that housed more than a million displaced Palestinians, in early May aiming to dismantle what it said was Hamas’s last remaining stronghold. In the past week, the military said it had dismantled two of Hamas’s four battalions in the region and seized most of the Rafah area, including Gaza’s border with Egypt.

An Israeli air strike in May near Al-Mawasi killed two top Hamas leaders but also led to civilian deaths after a compound nearby was unintentionally set alight, according to Israel. Palestinian health officials said 45 Palestinians were killed and others were wounded, including children and women, in that incident. Israel said it used small warheads that were precision-guided and aimed at an enclosed structure.

The incident caused international condemnation and underscored the challenges of fighting in a densely populated area.

The Wall Street Journal