Much of the alZahraa area in central Gaza was completely razed
Photo: Portal / BBC News Brasil
Sustained Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have destroyed most of a neighborhood in the center of the enclave. Officials at the Hamasrun health ministry say the total death toll across the region has risen to more than 4,300 people.
More than half of those killed were women and children, the ministry said.
About 1.4 million people in the Gaza Strip have been displaced, and more than half a million people are being housed in 147 UN shelters, the organization said.
This Saturday (October 21st), trucks carrying donated food, medicine and other basic goods began entering the Gaza Strip via the border with Egypt.
The Israeli army said the aid was intended only for the southern part of the Palestinian enclave.
The military also called on all residents of northern Gaza to leave the region and move to the south of the Wadi Gaza reserve, in the center of the territory.
However, Israeli air strikes also continued in the southern Gaza Strip. Some people refused to leave their homes, saying nowhere was safe.
Israel cut off fuel, electricity and water supplies to Gaza after Hamas’ military wing raided the border with Israel, killing more than 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said “intense shelling” and indiscriminate rocket fire on Israeli population centers by Palestinian armed groups continued in Gaza.
UN officials describe the situation in Gaza as catastrophic. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said humanitarian conditions in Gaza were “under control.”
Most of the AlZahraa neighborhood was destroyed
Recent Israeli airstrikes have destroyed the alZahraa neighborhood in central Gaza. More than 20 apartment blocks were leveled overnight on Friday (October 20).
Images and videos posted on social media showed plumes of smoke rising over the neighborhood and rows of destroyed buildings along streets littered with debris.
Local residents told the BBC they did not expect the bombing as the area was relatively quiet. They said they were ordered to evacuate around 8:30 p.m. local time on Thursday evening.
“We ran through the streets. Then this morning Israel began shelling that area nonstop from 9pm to 7am,” one woman told the BBC on Friday.
The bombing left thousands of people without shelter. On Friday, another resident told the BBC that people were still trapped under the rubble of their homes.
“The ambulances can’t come here. People are screaming but we can’t get them out,” he said.
Smoke covers the sky after an attack in the Gaza Strip
Photo: MOHAMMED SABER/EPAEFE/REX/Shutterstock / BBC News Brasil
Order to evacuate the hospital
In the northern Gaza Strip, the humanitarian organization Red Crescent said Israeli forces had ordered the evacuation of AlQuds Hospital.
According to the facility, the hospital currently houses more than 400 patients and 12,000 displaced civilians.
The Red Crescent called on the “international community to take urgent action”.
A group of doctors, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, said it had filed a petition with Israel’s Supreme Court warning that AlQuds Hospital should not be emptied.
“In its response, the state announced that it would not attack the hospital for the time being,” the group said, saying an attack on the site could endanger civilians, constitute a violation of international law and lead to damage to medical services.
The NGO Save the Children warned that the lives of a million children in Gaza “are at stake.”
The humanitarian organization called for the urgent medical evacuation of sick and injured children from Gaza and warned of a rise in deaths as a direct result of severe medical supply shortages and power outages.
Gaza City residents flee in a car as Israel continues its airstrikes on the Gaza Strip
Photo: MOHAMMED SABER/EPAEFE/REX/Shutterstock / BBC News Brasil
Deaths after attack near church
Israel said it had opened an investigation into an airstrike that damaged a church complex in Gaza on Thursday during a crackdown on Hamas.
A building near the Church of Saint Porphyry in Gaza City partially collapsed in the attack.
Hamas officials said 16 people were killed, while Israel only said it was aware of reports of casualties.
Former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash said several of his relatives who sought refuge on church grounds were killed as a result of the Israeli airstrike.
“The Palestinian Christian community has suffered greatly. Our family is suffering a lot,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Funeral of Palestinians killed in an attack on the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyry
Photo: Portal / BBC News Brasil
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its warplanes struck a Hamas command and control center near the church that was being used for rocket attacks.
“As a result of the IDF attack, the wall of a church in the area was damaged. We are aware of reports of casualties. The incident is currently under investigation,” the army said.
“The IDF can clearly say that the church was not the target of the attack.”
Based on images released Friday, it appears that while the church’s main building was damaged, an adjacent building within the complex collapsed.
Photos analyzed by BBC Verify, the BBC’s factchecking unit, show a large amount of debris falling onto the street.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, head of the largest Palestinian Christian organization, expressed its “strongest condemnation of the Israeli airstrike on its church grounds.”
Saint Porphyry is the oldest church still in use in Gaza, with its current structure dating back to the 12th century. There are about 1,000 Christians in Gaza, most of whom are Greek Orthodox.
Hamas said around 500 people were seeking shelter there, but the BBC was unable to confirm this information.
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