Israeli fire belt tears through residential units in north Gaza’s Beit Lahia killing 87

The Israeli military launched a fire belt attack on Saturday night which killed dozens of Palestinians in Beit Lahia when a series of airstrikes tore through a block of residential units. Eighty-seven Palestinians were killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and 40 more were injured.

Many of the victims were displaced Palestinians who had fled the aggressive military campaign on Jabalia.

Israel launched the campaign two weeks ago, moving ground troops, tanks and bulldozers in a northeastern direction and slowly isolating Jabalia and its camp, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun and other areas in the northeastern part of the strip from Gaza City.

Of around 400,000 Palestinians who were still residing in the northern part of the coastal enclave after a year of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, around 20,000 were forced to flee Jabalia camp on October 18 , according to UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini. More than 50,000 Palestinians were displaced from the Jabalia area in the first two weeks of October, according to the agency’s situation report published Wednesday. 

The residential block attacked housed tens of thousands of Palestinians, including people displaced from Jabalia, Gaza Government Media Office director Ismail al-Thawabata told Mada Masr,  noting that the Civil Defense Agency and paramedics are still working to recover bodies, as many families remain under the rubble.

It was impossible to sleep last night in the city and in the surrounding camps because of the extreme scale of the bombing on Beit Lahia, said Nihad Abu Mattar, an eyewitness.

When morning came, Abu Mattar and some neighbors headed to the outskirts of the targeted area, only to find that the Occupation had completely destroyed a whole residential area that was crowded with displaced people and contained the homes of the Sharif, Ubaid and Derewi families, he told Mada Masr. 

“We found many bodies visible among the rubble, children and women in very horrific scenes. We found victims who tried to escape from their homes and were bombed and killed in the street. Whole families were killed in the street. The Occupation targeted them directly,” he said.

Another eyewitness told Mada Masr that he saw mostly bodies of women and children left behind by the Israeli attack. “The situation is horrific,” he said. “There are bodies everywhere. And we work with our hands, there is no equipment, nothing. And we work under fear of being bombed again.”

“I was able, with some residents, to retrieve two completely disfigured bodies from under the rubble. I was also able to rescue a seriously injured girl,” he added.

Ali Khreis, one of the people injured in the attack, told Mada Masr that he too saw completely dismembered bodies, which he said were brought to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, where he himself was transferred for treatment. “I was truly shocked by the horror of what I saw. Bodies everywhere, the wounded everywhere and limbs everywhere,” Khreis said.

Indonesian Hospital Director Marwan Sultan told Mada Masr that the hospital received the bodies of 73 Palestinians who were killed last night, noting that more bodies and people injured in the attack were arriving at the hospital as he was speaking.

Sultan stressed that the hospital is unable to handle such a massive influx of killed and injured people amid frequent power outages, as it struggles with severe fuel and medical supply shortages. Earlier on Saturday, Israeli tanks surrounded the hospital and fired at its facilities, killing two intensive care patients with its siege, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. 

Since the start of the extensive assault on northern Gaza, Israeli forces have halted the delivery of fuel and supplies to medical centers in the north, while repeatedly preventing medics from reaching targeted areas and the injured.