An Israeli airstrike on a multi-story building in northern Gaza killed at least 27 people, relief officials said, as the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders in the area, where it is mounting a major offensive.
The home of the Mbahouh family in Jabalya was struck on Thursday afternoon, according to the spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, Mahmoud Basal.
He said the four-story property was sheltering more than 50 displaced people, and some had been trapped in a warehouse at the bottom of the building.
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks has demolished entire neighborhoods and rendered large swathes of the strip uninhabitable.
At least 43,469 Palestinians have been killed and another 102,561 people injured in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health there.
Human rights agencies warned of “apocalyptic” survival challenges for Palestinians trapped in Jabalya, home to a large refugee camp, where the Israeli military ramped up aerial and ground attacks in early October that it says are targeting Hamas’ renewed presence in the area.
Israeli airstrikes and shelling reportedly killed at least 30 other people in Gaza since Wednesday. Most of those Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks in the Beit Lahiya area of northern Gaza.
An Israeli airstrike struck a residential building in the Mashrou’ neighborhood of Beit Lahiya, killing six people and injuring several others, journalists and medics say, who added that a further six people were killed in second strike in the same area. Four others were killed in a separate drone strike in Beit Lahiya, they said.
In addition, six people had been killed, according to local journalists, as a result of Israeli artillery shelling west of Jabalya camp in northern Gaza.
New evacuation orders
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that “troops started to operate in the area of Beit Lahiya following prior intelligence information and a situational assessment indicating the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”
The IDF said it also continues operations in Jabalya in northern Gaza and had killed some “50 terrorists” over the past day.
The military’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted on X a demand that residents leave several areas of northern Gaza, saying that “once again, terrorist organizations are launching rocket attacks toward the state of Israel.”
Adraee said that the “specified area has been warned multiple times previously. We inform you that the specified area is considered a dangerous combat zone, so for your safety, move south immediately.”
“They were at home when suddenly a missile hit their building… They have no connection to any organizations or anything like that. They were unarmed, poor people with difficult circumstances, who struggled to build this home.”
Among those in the building were orphans who had been raised by their grandmother, Abu Najeh said.
Israeli operations also continue in southern Gaza, where the IDF said Thursday that a “number of armed terrorists” had been killed in the Rafah area.
The Palestine Red Crescent said paramedics had transferred five bodies to hospital as a result of an Israeli drone attack in the Al-Janina neighborhood, east of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip. Journalists said four of those killed were from the same family.
Additionally, they said, two people were killed in a strike launched from an Israeli military quadcopter.
