‘Horrifying loss of life’: Israeli airstrike in Gaza kills nearly 100 people in one building

An Israeli airstrike killed nearly 100 people in a residential building – including many women and children – in an incident the US government described as ‘horrifying’.

Stunned relatives wait for news of loved ones in the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli strike that killed at least 93 people, including many women and children. Picture: AFP

An Israeli airstrike on a single residential block killed nearly 100 people overnight on Tuesday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said, leaving rescuers scrambling for survivors as Israel pursued its ­offensives in Gaza and Lebanon.

Israel’s key ally and backer the US called the strike – which killed a large number of children – “horrifying”.

The bombing came with Israel facing an international backlash after its parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA, the main UN aid agency working with Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian rescuers and desperate family members gathered around the demolished five-­storey block in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. A charred body with long hair hung from an upper-storey window and bodies in blankets were lined up in the street as stunned relatives sought to identify their loved ones.

“The number of martyrs in the massacre of the Abu Nasr family home in Beit Lahia has risen to 93 martyrs, and about 40 are still missing under the rubble,” said Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

Israel’s military said it was “looking into the reports” of the strike.

It earlier reported its forces had killed 40 Hamas fighters, with the loss of four soldiers.

The Israeli military has repeatedly struck shelters for displaced people in recent months. It says it carries out precise strikes targeting Palestinian militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but the strikes often kill women and children.

“The explosion happened at night and I first thought it was shelling, but when I went out after sunrise I saw people pulling bodies, limbs and the wounded from under the rubble,” said Rabie al-Shandagly, 30.

“Most of the victims are women and children, and people are trying to save the injured, but there are no hospitals or proper medical care,” he said.

Washington expressed deep concern. “This was a horrifying incident with a horrifying result,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

“We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask what happened here.”

The nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital was overwhelmed by a wave of wounded women and children, including many who needed urgent surgeries, according to its director, Hossam Abu Safiya. The Israeli military raided the hospital over the weekend, ­detaining dozens of medics it said were Hamas militants.

“The situation is catastrophic in every sense of the word,” Dr ­Safiya said, adding that the only remaining doctor at the hospital was a pediatrician.

“The healthcare system has collapsed and needs an urgent international intervention.”

Israel’s military has been conducting a sweeping air and ground assault in northern Gaza since October 6 – particularly around Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun – saying it aims to prevent Hamas regrouping.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the area, more than 12 months into the war sparked by Hamas militants launching a bloody cross-border assault into Israel on October 7 last year.

As the fighting raged, Hamas signalled it was ready to resume ceasefire negotiations, although its key demands – a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of the Israeli military – do not appear to have changed, and have been dismissed in the past by Israel. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Tuesday the group has accepted mediators’ request to discuss “new proposals”.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 43,061 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the UN considers reliable, triggering warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.

During the October 7 attack, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, including soldiers and civilians, of whom 97 are still in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of them are dead.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

In Lebanon, Israeli tanks entered the outskirts of the village of Khiam, their deepest incursion yet in the ground operation they launched against Hezbollah last month, state media reported.

Late on Tuesday, local time, the health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sarafand in south Lebanon killed at least eight people.

It also reported six dead in an earlier strike on Haret Saida near the main southern city of Sidon.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said its southern Lebanon headquarters had been hit by a rocket fired “likely by Hezbollah or an affiliated group”.

Austria said eight of its soldiers were hurt in the incident.

Based on official figures, at least 1750 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, when the fighting escalated as Israel launched an air and ground offensive against Hezbollah, which had been carrying out rocket attacks for the past year.

AFP, AP