UPDATES DEATH TOLL, REVISES DECK, ADDS CHANGES
By Hosni Nadim
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – At least 93 Palestinians were killed and scores injured in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to local authorities.
Israeli fighter jets hit a 5-story building in the city as more than 200 people were inside, Gaza’s government media office said.
“At least 93 people were killed, scores injured while over 40 are still missing,” it added in a statement.
According to the media office, the majority of people inside the building were women and children displaced from their areas by Israeli attacks.
"This new crime comes in parallel with the occupation's plan to destroy the health system in northern Gaza and put four hospitals there out of service in addition to preventing the entry of medicines and medical supplies,” it said.
According to witnesses, dozens of dead bodies and injured people were recovered from under the rubble of the destroyed building by local residents.
“Medics are unable to access the area due to Israeli attacks amid a collapse of the health service,” one of the witnesses said.
Marwan Al-Hams, the director of field hospitals in Gaza, said the limited number of medics in northern Gaza makes it impossible to deal with the high number of casualties from the attack.
He appealed to the international community to dispatch medical teams to provide medical help to the injured people in northern Gaza.
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 Ahmed Asmar