Israeli air strike on Beit Lahiya hit area where people live ‘back-to-back’
The extent of the brutality of the attack keeps unfolding with many people still buried under massive piles of rubble. We are talking about attacks and the kind of weapons – the bombs dropped by the Israeli military – that turned areas into dust.
We are also talking about a very densely populated area where residential homes are back-to-back, given the smallest space available for people in that urban area. Large pieces of concrete – as a result of the attack and the destruction – make it very difficult for the paramedics and the Civil Defence members to conduct rescue missions.
We are talking about close to a hundred people killed in the attacks, the majority of them women and children and elderly.
More than half of the people who were killed are, in fact, people who were forced to evacuate from Jabalia and other parts of the eastern and central part of the northern Gaza Strip as the siege continues and the massive bombardment continues.
So these people, even when they are seeking shelter and safety elsewhere, are being bombed, maimed and killed in the very location that they chose to seek shelter and safety.
‘Massive’ Israeli strike on Beit Lahiya shook foundations of surrounding buildings
This is in the western part of Beit Lahiya, known as the Beit Lahiya Project area. A very densely populated area, as I said, and more recently, the population doubled because of the forced evacuation orders by the Israeli military [in northern Gaza].
Other than the 100 killed, we are looking at many people still buried under the rubble.
A witness from the area described the massive explosion resulting from multiple air strikes shaking the very foundations of the surrounding areas.
Al Jazeera journalist’s relatives killed in attack on Beit Lahiya
Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent Anas al-Sharif says that at least 10 of his relatives, including his cousin, are among dozens killed in an Israeli attack that destroyed an entire residential block in Beit Lahiya.
“Today, while covering the massacre by Israeli occupation forces in [Beit Lahiya], I was shocked to discover that one of the homes targeted in the airstrike belonged to my cousin,” al-Sharif wrote in a post on X.
Today, while covering the massacre by Israeli occupation forces in the Beit Lahia project, I was shocked to discover that one of the homes targeted in the airstrike belonged to my cousin, Haj Mohammed Al-Sharif (Abu Jihad), his wife Khitam Al-Sharif, and their children: Majd,…
— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) October 20, 2024
White House says working to ‘surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza’
White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett says the United States is “working to surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza” after an “unacceptable slowdown” in deliveries to northern Gaza since October 1.
In a post on X, Savett welcomed an airdrop of food parcels by the United Arab Emirates and said the resumption of aid to Northern Gaza, with 129 trucks entering from Jordan last week, was a “vital lifeline”.
At least some of the food trucks that reached the north of the Gaza Strip last week reached Gaza City, but not areas further north under Israeli military siege, including the Jabalia refugee camp.
Children run as a military plane drops humanitarian aid near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday
Jabalia is North of Gaza City. The North (with estimated 200 to 400 thousand people) hasn't received any aid since Oct 1.
