By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) -Dozens of Palestinians were killed or injured in an Israeli strike on a multi-storey residential building in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya on Sunday, medics told Reuters.
There was no immediate figure for how many people were killed. The Palestinian Civil Emergency said around 70 people have lived in the property.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office put the number of those killed at 72. The building housed members of at least six families, medics and residents said.
There was no immediate comment from Israel. It has often accused the Hamas media office of exaggerating the number of fatalities.
Video footage of the strike site obtained by Reuters showed locals pulling bodies from a huge pile of rubble, with surrounding houses also damaged, some heavily.
The Israeli army sent tanks into Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, last month in what it said was a campaign to fight Hamas militants waging attacks and prevent them from regrouping.
It said it has killed hundreds of militants in those three areas, which residents said Israeli forces had isolated from Gaza City.
A statement by the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, on Sunday said fighters blew up an Israeli army vehicle during fighting in Beit Lahiya. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the claim.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli air strike killed at least 10 people in the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, when a missile hit a house, medics said. Four other people were killed in the nearby Nuseirat camp, they added.
Qatar has told Hamas and Israel it will stall its efforts to mediate a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal until they show “willingness and seriousness” to resume talks.
The two warring sides continue to trade blame. Hamas wants a deal that ends the war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war can only end once Hamas is eradicated.
The Gaza health ministry said 43,800 people have been confirmed dead since Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 Israelis that day, and still hold dozens of some 250 hostages they took back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
(Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi; Editing by William Mallard and Lincoln Feast, Kirsten Donovan)
