Israeli air strikes have killed at least 70 people, including a two-week-old baby, as they hit housing in the Maghazi refugee camp, in one of the deadliest attacks in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7.
CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM- At a funeral in Gaza on Monday a line of Palestinians touched the white shrouds containing the bodies of at least 70 people who Palestinian health officials said were killed by an Israeli airstrike targeting Maghazi in the centre of the besieged strip.
The funeral followed one of the enclave’s deadliest nights in the 11-week-old battle between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza. One man hugged a dead child, while others were hysterical.
One man, Ibrahim Youssef, said his wife and four children including a four-month-old baby, were trapped under the rubble after an airstrike hit the house where they were staying in the Maghazi refugee camp.
Youssef said he was away when he heard the strike and hurried back home. Despite saving one of his sons, he had been unable to reach the others.
“What did they do wrong?” he asked. “Were there resistance fighters here?”
Israel denies targeting civilians and accuses Hamas of building tunnels and military infrastructure in densely populated civilian areas.
The strikes that began hours before midnight persisted into Monday. Palestinian media said Israel had stepped up its air and ground shelling in central Gaza.
Health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra said many of those killed at Maghazi were women and children. Eight others were killed as Israeli planes and tanks carried out dozens of strikes on houses and roads in nearby al-Bureij and al-Nusseirat, health officials said.
(Reuters)
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