Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
At least 73 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded in an Israeli strike that targeted a residential block in the city of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, the enclave’s Media Office said on October 19.
“The Israeli occupation army continues its war of ethnic cleansing, extermination and genocide in a clear manner, this time in the Beit Lahia project in the northern Gaza Strip governorate, where the occupation army committed a horrific massacre that has so far resulted in 73 martyrs, as well as dozens of wounded and missing persons, most of whom are children and women, after bombing residential areas crowded with safe residents,” the office said in a statement.
Israel said it was checking reports of casualties but alleged that the figures published by Gaza authorities were “exaggerated” and did not match information held by its military.
Footage aired by the Qatari Al Jazeera TV showed dozens of dead bodies and first responders rescuing wounded people from under the rubble in Beit Lahia.
Hamas senior officer khalil al-Hayya described the strike on Beit Lahia as a “massacre” and called for a a strong Arab reaction against Israel.
“What is happening in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza is a new chapter of Nazism, and the Zionist occupation is carrying out a systematic operation to displace our people in northern Gaza,” al-Hayya said.
“The Arab and Islamic masses must besiege the occupation and American embassies, and this massacre must not go unnoticed,” he added.
Northern Gaza is currently under a suffocating siege and constant bombardment, with homes being demolished by the Israeli military.
Hours before the massacre in Beit Lahia, the Health Ministry in Gaza said that the death toll from the Israeli war on the Strip had reached 42,519 with more than 99,637 wounded.
The Israeli war has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza and destroyed much of the Strip, including nearly all vital infrastructure facilities.
Mediation efforts led by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to reach a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement between Israel and Hamas, which rules the Strip, have failed over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to end the war.
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