At least 34 killed in Israeli strike in northern Gaza

An Israeli air strike on a five-storey residential block in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza has killed at least 34 people, the local civil defence agency says.

The agency, quoted by AFP, said many of the dead were women and children, with dozens stilled feared to be under the rubble. Seven people were also injured.

The Israeli military said it had been striking militant targets in the northern Gaza, including Beit Lahia, in an attempt to stop Hamas from regrouping.

Elsewhere, in central Gaza three separate attacks on refugee camps killed 15 people, while five more were killed in a Israeli drone attack on Rafah in the south, the civil defence added.

“The chances of rescuing more wounded are decreasing because of the continuous shooting and artillery shelling,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

All that is left of the residential building in Beit Lahia is a pile of rubble, with broken concrete and jagged shards of twisted metal sticking out from the ruins.

One man, whose family lived in the flattened building, but was staying elsewhere, said, quoted by AFP: “We all thought that death was near.”

“The whole area was shaking.”

The Israeli military said its offensive in northern Gaza – which began in Jabalia and expanded into Beit Lahia – consisted of several strikes overnight on what it called “terrorist targets in the area”.

It added in a statement that “there have been continuous efforts to evacuate the civilian population from the active war zone”. —BBC