Israel bombs family building in Gaza City, instantly killing 38 Palestinians

An Israeli airstrike targeted a four-story building on Wednesday in a dense residential area in Shujaiya, a neighborhood in the east of Gaza City.

The building, which previously belonged to the Amsha family, was crowded with residents and displaced Palestinians and was razed to the ground by the force of the bombardment, while surrounding homes were completely or partially destroyed by the explosion, according to survivors who described scenes of horror as neighbors rushed to try and retrieve people from underneath the rubble themselves.

The bombing killed at least 38 Palestinians and injured around 50, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Khalil al-Daqran told Mada Masr.

Around 30 people were trapped beneath the destruction, including children, according to reports that Gaza's Civil Defense Directorate said it had received, noting that it was unable to retrieve people from beneath the collapsed structure due to insufficient equipment.

The bombing came as Israeli forces continue to push from the eastern North Governorate toward other eastern neighborhoods in Gaza City, forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee once again into an increasingly small area of the coastline.

The building in Shujaiya was flattened on the heads of those inside, Zuhair Abu Alwan, an eyewitness to the bombing, told Mada Masr. 

The injured were people who were in the damaged surrounding buildings, he said, as everyone who was inside the targeted building was killed instantly. He described trying to recover people’s remains from under the rubble, most of which he said were women and children whose bodies had been severed by the force of the explosion.

Rami Hamouda, another eyewitness, said they could hear the screams of children trapped under the rubble but were unable to reach them. 

He described helping to rescue a girl who had lost the lower half of her body. She died in his arms as he tried to carry her to the hospital on foot as transportation was not available.

"I was terrified by the horror of the scene. I was crying bitterly as I ran with this little girl, searching for any vehicle or carriage to take us to the hospital," Hamouda recalled.

While Mohamed Abu Amsha found the remains of several members of his uncle's family following the bombing, he told Mada Masr that other family members remain under the rubble, with no means of recovering them due to the lack of equipment. 

Civil defense crews are no longer able to cope with the number of victims due to a shortage of relief personnel, spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Mada Masr. 

He, too, said that most of those injured had already suffered severe amputations due to the injuries sustained from the destruction or burn injuries, criticizing the type of weapons used.

The Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson likewise said that Occupation forces used massive missiles to bomb the targeted home, predicting that the death toll was likely to be much higher than that confirmed.

Shortly after, in the same neighborhood, five people were killed following the bombing of a house in the Mintar area, the outlet Palestine Today reported.

Since Israel resumed its aggression on Gaza on March 18, over 390,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced as a result of 15 Israeli evacuation orders targeting about one-third of Gaza’s area, according to Wednesday data published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory (OCHA). 

OCHA stated that the areas restricted from entry, along with the security buffer zones surrounding Gaza, constitute approximately 66 percent of the strip's total area.