‘Horrifying’: Nearly 100 killed in Israeli strike on residential block in Gaza

Nearly 100 people, including 20 children, have been killed in an Israeli air strike labelled “horrifying” by the US.

Nearly 100 people, including 20 children, have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a single residential block in northern Gaza, the city’s civil defence agency said.

The strike – which the US labelled “horrifying” – hit a five-storey residential building in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza on Tuesday.

93 people have been killed and another 40 people are missing, with rescuers scrambling for survivors, according to the Gaza government media office.

20 children were among the dead, medics said.

“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,” Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

93 people were killed and another 40 people were missing in the Israeli strike in Beit Lahia. Picture: AFP

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

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

“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 told AFP.

The bombing comes as Israel faces international backlash after its parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA, the main United Nations aid agency working with Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

93 people have been killed in an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia. Picture: AFP

“Horrifying incident”

The US expressed deep concern over the strike.

“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.”

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.

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 United Nations considers reliable, triggering warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.

‘Devastating consequences’

International concerns have mounted after the Israeli parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Lawmakers also passed a measure prohibiting Israeli officials from working with UNRWA.

Israel strictly controls all humanitarian aid shipments into Gaza, and UNRWA has provided essential aid, schooling and healthcare across the Palestinian territories and in the diaspora for more than seven decades.

“There is a deep connection between the terrorist organisation (Hamas) and UNRWA, and Israel cannot put up with it,” lawmaker Yuli Edelstein said in parliament as he presented the proposal.

But several of Israel’s Western allies including the United States voiced deep disquiet.

Miller reiterated a warning to Israel that Israel Washington could withhold military assistance without improvements in humanitarian aid into Gaza.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said London was “gravely concerned” and the French foreign ministry said it “very strongly regrets” the law.

Germany, a staunch defender of Israel’s security, warned it would “effectively make UNRWA’s work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible”.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said the Israeli law could have “devastating consequences” if implemented.

The US said the strike was a “horrifying incident with a horrifying result”. Picture: AFP

Israel’s neighbour Jordan, which also hosts UNRWA offices, condemned the ban as a “continuation of Israel’s frantic efforts to assassinate the UN agency politically”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media that Israel was “ready” to continue providing aid to Gaza “in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security”.

Hezbollah names new leader

Meanwhile in Lebanon, Hezbollah announced it has chosen deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as leader after his death in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X that Qassem was a “temporary appointment” who would not last for long. In a separate post in Hebrew, he added that the “countdown has begun”.

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian’s website said Qassem’s appointment would “strengthen the will of the resistance”.

Separately, 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.

According to an AFP tally based on official figures, at least 1,750 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 in support of Hamas.

Originally published as ‘Horrifying’: Nearly 100 killed in Israeli strike on residential block in Gaza