An Israeli strike on a home in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, killed at least 25 Palestinians, including 13 children, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Tuesday.
Medical sources told WAFA that people are still missing under the rubble, meaning the death toll could rise. Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, which has come under repeated Israeli attacks, said the home that was targeted was sheltering several displaced Palestinian families.
According to The Associated Press, Israel claimed it targeted a weapons storage facility but, as usual, offered no evidence for the claim.
Beit Lahia has been under a total Israeli siege since the beginning of October as Israeli forces are attempting to carry out an ethnic cleansing campaign known as the “general’s plan.” The assault has been focused on Beit Lahia and the neighboring cities of Jabalia and Beit Hanoun.
AP reported that dozens of Palestinians, mostly women and children, fled Beit Lahia on Tuesday amid the constant Israeli attacks and arrived in the rubble-lined streets of Gaza City.
“We came barefoot. We have no sandals, no clothes, nothing. We have no money. There is no food or drink,” said Huda Abu Laila, an elderly Palestinian woman who was forcibly displaced from Beit Lahia. “We are hungry. Hunger has killed us. We were under siege for one month without water or food.”
Medical sources told Al Jazeera that Israeli attacks across Gaza on Tuesday had killed at least 54 Palestinians since dawn, including 39 who were killed in the north.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said mid-day Tuesday that at least 17 Palestinians were killed and 86 were wounded in the previous 24-hour period. The ministry’s numbers only account for dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals and morgues. Since north Gaza has no functioning hospitals, not all of the dead are being counted.
The Health Ministry said the latest violence brought its death toll since October 2023 to 43,391 and the number of wounded to 102,347. A group of American healthcare workers who volunteered in Gaza have estimated the US-backed Israeli bombing campaign and siege has killed at least 118,908 Palestinians, including over 60,000 who have starved to death.
