Israeli air strikes kill 73 Palestinians in north Gaza

Displaced Palestinians, ordered by the Israeli army to leave the school in Beit Lahia where they were sheltered, rest as they arrive in Gaza City Saturday. Gaza’s civil defence agency said more than 400 Palestinians were killed in the north of the territory over the past two weeks during an ongoing Israeli military assault which has displaced tens of thousands.

At least 73 Palestinians, including many women and children, were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli strikes Saturday that hit several houses in Beit Lahiya town in northern Gaza Strip, Hamas media said.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office also said dozens were wounded and missing in the strikes. Medics said the air strikes targeted a multi-floor building and damaged several houses nearby.

Palestinian health officials said rescue operations were being hampered by the cut-off of telecommunication and internet services for the second day. Earlier in the day, the Gaza health ministry said Israeli military strikes killed 35 Palestinians across the enclave.

“This is a war of genocide and ethnic cleansing. The occupation has conducted a horrifying massacre in Beit Lahiya,” the Hamas media office said.

Residents and medics said Israeli forces had tightened their siege on Jabalia, the largest of the enclave’s eight historic camps, which it encircled by also sending tanks to nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and issuing evacuation orders to residents.

In Jabalia, residents said Israeli army forces besieged several shelters housing displaced families before they stormed them and detained dozens of men. Footage circulated on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed dozens of Palestinian men sitting on the ground next to a tank, while others were led by a soldier to a gathering site.

Residents and medical officials said Israeli forces were bombing houses and besieging hospitals, preventing medical and food supplies from entering to force them to leave the camp.

Health officials said they refused orders by the Israeli army to evacuate the hospital or leave the patients, many in a critical condition, unattended.

Israeli military strikes killed at least 108 people across the Gaza Strip Saturday and its forces tightened a siege around hospitals in Jabalia in the north of the enclave, Palestinian health officials said.

Israel’s war has devastated Gaza, killing more than 42,500 Palestinians, with another 10,000 uncounted dead thought to lie under the rubble, Gaza health authorities say.

In the central Gaza Strip camp of Al-Maghzai, an Israeli strike on a house killed 11 people, while another strike at the nearby camp of Nuseirat killed four others.

Five other people were killed in two separate strikes in the south Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, medics said, while seven Palestinians were killed in the Shati camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

Later on Saturday, an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians in Nuseirat in central Gaza, medics said.