Israeli strike kills at least 73 people in northern Gaza, medics say
BEIRUT – At least 73 people were killed when an Israeli airstrike slammed into a group of homes in the northern Gaza Strip, the civil defense force said Saturday, as Israel’s military intensified operations there just days after President Joe Biden suggested that the death of Hamas’ leader could usher in an end to the ruinous war.
The bombing targeted the town of Beit Lahia, less than 2 miles from the border with Israel, late on Saturday. The entire block was “leveled to the ground,” said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense, adding that there were a large number of people still under the rubble.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the strike was against “a Hamas terror target.”
“We emphasize that the area in question is an active war zone,” the military said.
Israeli forces launched a new operation in northern Gaza two weeks ago, ramping up strikes and shelling, ordering swaths of the region to evacuate, and laying siege to the Jabalya refugee camp, still home to about 40,000 people, according to United Nations estimates. Nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed in the two-week operation, Bassal said by phone.
Israeli officials say troops are battling to stop Hamas from regrouping in northern Gaza, and that the strategy there could be mimicked in other parts of the territory. At its most extreme, the battle plan, backed by key members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, envisions systematically emptying areas of civilians and starving out – or shooting down – anyone who stays.
Earlier Saturday, Israeli forces surrounded and fired on two hospitals in northern Gaza, according to local health authorities. They fired artillery shells at the upper floors of the Indonesian Hospital, the facility’s director, Marwan Sultan, said in a phone interview. The hospital lost power and two patients in the intensive care unit died, he said.
“No one is allowed to enter or exit the hospital,” he added. “Soldiers are almost at the hospital gates.”
In a statement, the Israeli military said troops were “operating against terrorists” in the area of the hospital. “There was no intentional fire directed at it,” the military said.
The U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Muhannad Hadi, said Saturday that the Indonesian Hospital “is no longer operational.”
“We have repeatedly warned that the tightening siege on Jabalya and northern Gaza is life-threatening,” Hadi said in a statement. The United Nations made an “urgent request” to Israeli forces on Friday to access northern Gaza to “assist in rescuing dozens of injured people trapped in rubble,” he said, adding that as of Saturday, the request “remains unfulfilled.”
Last week, citing U.S. and international law, senior Biden administration officials gave Israel one month to reverse course on sealing off the north, or risk losing American military assistance. The World Food Program said on Oct. 12 that no food had entered northern Gaza since the beginning of the month, and on Saturday, aid officials said they have seen no indications Israel is seeking to significantly increase aid to the area.
Israel says the operation has killed militants, uncovered weapons stores and dismantled “terrorist infrastructure” in the north. Videos from Jabalya have also shown dead children lying in the streets and on hospital floors.
Among the dead was 31-year-old Mahasen Khateeb, an illustrator, whose work celebrated Palestinian culture. “I don’t want to be just another number on the news ticker,” she said in a post to her social media feed this summer. “I am a story.” A relative said she was killed after an Israeli airstrike hit her neighbor’s house.
After more than a year of war, at least 42,519 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the local health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Health experts say the death toll is probably several magnitudes higher, since the reporting system in several areas has broken down, and thousands remain missing under the rubble.
In statements describing the battles in Jabalya on Saturday, the Israeli army said that two soldiers had been killed in the fighting, and that its 162nd Division had “eliminated” dozens of people, and made arrests, but that hundreds of civilians had also been permitted to leave the area.
In their letter to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had urged Israel not to force the evacuation of civilians from northern to southern Gaza – but outlined no clear penalties for if it did.
Photographs and drone footage published by the army and a local journalist on Saturday, showed dozens of men and boys near the Indonesian hospital, divided into groups, in a stretch of land so decimated that tarmac roads had been replaced by ground dirt. They held their hands in the air and stood in line. It was unclear whether they were being detained or forcibly evacuated.
In southern Gaza, Israeli planes dropped leaflets Saturday showing a picture of Hamas’s slain leader Yahya Sinwar. “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza,” it said. “Whoever drops his weapon and bring hostages back to us we will let him out and live peacefully.”
In the aftermath of Sinwar’s killing Thursday, Biden – a leading international champion of Israel’s war – said there was “now the opportunity for a ‘day after.’ ” But by Friday, his pronouncements to reporters were more muted. “There’s a possibility of working to a cease-fire in Lebanon,” where Israel has launched a ground invasion to dislodge Hezbollah, while “it’s going to be harder in Gaza.”
Netanyahu’s office said Saturday that a drone had reached his residence in Israel’s coastal Caesarea area. It did not hit his home and neither Netanyahu nor his wife were present at the time, with no casualties reported, his spokesman Omer Dostri added. The Israeli army said that it was one of about 180 projectiles fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel, leading to at least one death and several injuries.
A 50-year-old man died after shrapnel struck his car in the northern Ein Hamifratz area, Israeli paramedics and Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s emergency services, said. Next to the 50-year-old driver was another passenger, who said that the driver wasn’t able to duck when an explosion hit following sirens, MDA senior EMT Alex Mutzkin said in a statement.
Hours later, Israeli warplanes bombed several locations in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, where the Israeli army says it is targeting Hezbollah personnel and infrastructure. The air campaign and ground invasion has displaced around a quarter of Lebanon’s population, according to the United Nations. Lebanon’s health ministry said Saturday that 2,448 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the war, with 11,471 others wounded – most from the past month alone.
In a statement, the Israeli army’s Arabic language spokesman said that the airstrikes in Beirut targeted “several weapons depots and the headquarters of Hezbollah’s intelligence branch.” It was not possible to independently verify that claim. The blasts sent dust and debris swirling over an anxious city, after three days of relative calm here, even as airstrikes pound swaths of southern Lebanon, and its rolling Bekaa Valley.
The health ministry said that 36 people had been killed and 204 wounded nationwide in the space of 48 hours.