‘Tens’ killed in Israeli strike on Beit Lahiya
Our correspondent on the ground in Gaza, Hani Mahmoud, is reporting that the attack we reported earlier on the area in north Gaza hit a five-storey residential building hosting about 100 internally displaced Palestinians.
Witnesses told Al Jazeera that many people were killed, and medics told Reuters that “tens” of people were killed and wounded. The number of dead remains unclear because an insufficient number of paramedics were able to reach the site of the attack, Mahmoud said.
Gaza Civil Defense: ‘We are unable to help the people of Beit Lahiya’
Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Gaza rescue organisation, says it cannot reach the site of an attack on Beit Lahiya, north Gaza. “The department received appeals from residents of a house bombed by the Israeli occupation in Beit Lahiya, but we cannot move to rescue them,” he said.
Two bombs hit a five-storey residential tower in the northern Gaza city, killing “tens” of people, according to medics.
Health Ministry: ’30 percent of victims in Beit Lahiya massacre are children’
Gaza Health Ministry’s Director-General Munir al-Bursh has given Al Jazeera an update on the latest developments:
- Israeli forces deliberately bomb civilians late at night so that no one could save them, al-Bursh said.
- Yesterday, Israelis prevented the entry of a UN humanitarian convoy carrying medicines to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
- Almost 30 percent of the victims of the Beit Lahiya massacre today are children.
- There are between 20 and 30 people under the rubble in Beit Lahiya who cannot be reached.
- More than 12,000 wounded people are in urgent need of treatment abroad, but Israeli forces are preventing them from travelling.
- They deliberately target doctors, even while they are in their homes, to prevent them from providing their services.
Funeral at Al-Aqsa Hospital for 17 Palestinians killed in central Gaza
Here, inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital, there was a mourning for the 17 Palestinians that we reported on earlier, who were killed across different areas in the central Gaza Strip. Among them are at least four children.
We saw mothers crying, bidding farewells to their loved ones. We also hear continuous shelling, explosions and Israeli planes above the central area.
And to make matters worse, the health situation and humanitarian situation are not getting any better. People are struggling to find food and get access to medicine and clean drinking water.
Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian killed in an Israeli strike, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip, November 17
Preliminary death toll from Israel’s Beit Lahiya strike at 72
Gaza’s Government Media Office says the strike, which we reported earlier, hit a residential tower in the north of Gaza housing six Palestinian families. Dozens more are wounded.
And as usual, while CNN reports the assassination of the Hezbollah spokesman, nothing (yet) about today's massacres in Gaza. 72 dead in one strike is now too low (too common?) to report on.
