By Nour Abuaisha
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – At least 16 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others injured on Tuesday evening in a new Israeli bombardment of three homes in the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.
According to the local Al-Aqsa channel, the homes belonged to the Al-Louh family.
“A large number of victims trapped under the rubble of the destroyed homes," the channel cited local sources as saying.
"Civilians are calling on civil defense and medical crews to rescue them, but unfortunately, northern Gaza has no civil defense or medical services,” Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense, told Anadolu.
"We've been bombed; please send emergency calls for an ambulance to the Al-Louh family," a member of the Al-Louh family can be heard saying in an audio clip shared by activists.
Other audio recordings also captured the screams of children and women.
This was the second Israeli attack on Beit Lahia on Tuesday. The first, earlier in the day, resulted in the death of 93 Palestinians after a residential building belonging to Abu Al-Nasr family was bombed in the morning.
The Israeli army has continued a deadly onslaught in northern Gaza since Oct. 5 to allegedly prevent Hamas from regrouping amid a suffocating siege on the area. Palestinians, however, accuse Israel of seeking to occupy the area and forcibly displace its residents.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in northern Gaza since the offensive began, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense Service.
The onslaught was the latest episode in a brutal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since a Hamas attack last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
Over 43,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 101,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala