AT least 35 Palestinians are killed, 55 wounded and 80 missing in a series of powerful Israeli air strikes on Shujayea district in northern Gaza City.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders says an Israeli attack hit close to its clinic in the so-called safe zone of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.
“The death toll from the Shujaiya massacre has risen to 23 martyrs, including eight children and eight women,” the agency’s spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding that more than 60 people were wounded.
“There are still people trapped under the rubble.”
Ayub Salim, a 26-year-old Shujaiya resident, told AFP he witnessed the strike on the four-storey block.
He said the area was hit with “multiple missiles” and was “overcrowded with tents, displaced people and homes”.
“Shrapnel flew in all directions,” he said, speaking of “a terrifying and indescribable scene”.
“Dust and massive destruction filled the entire place, we couldn’t see anything, just the screams and panic of the people”.
Salim said the dead were “torn to pieces”.
“Even now, emergency crews are still transporting the dead and the injured. It is truly a horrific massacre,” he said.
A crew from the Gaza civil defence agency rushed to the scene, only to find several people trapped under the rubble, a rescuer said.
“This house was home to many people who believed they were safe. It was blown up over their heads,” Ibrahim Abu al-Rish told AFP while men worked hard to clear out rubble behind him.
He added that the strike hit while many children were playing inside.
“The house was directly bombed, and the entire residential area was destroyed,” he said.
“We pulled out the remains of women and children. There are still people buried under the rubble.”
First responders and neighbours worked to break through the concrete floor of an entire storey that collapsed in the strike and trapped residents.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 50,810 Palestinians are confirmed dead and 115,688 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. The Government Media Office updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks and more than 200 taken captive.