The Hamas Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that a new bombardment by the Israeli army had killed “dozens” of people in the Gaza Strip’s Jabaliya refugee camp, which was the target of a deadly attack the day before.
• Also read: Jabaliya refugee camp: UN denounces new “atrocity” in Gaza
• Also read: Gaza: “A war that kills thousands of children has no winner”
According to this ministry, there were “dozens of martyrs and wounded in a bomb attack” by the Israeli army in this refugee camp on Wednesday.
Although no precise assessment was initially released, the attack caused enormous destruction, according to images obtained by AFPTV.
The Hamas-led Civil Defense of the Palestinian Territories claimed that this new bombardment had “killed entire families” in this camp, which is the largest in the Gaza Strip with 116,000 inhabitants.
“The Israeli occupation has once again committed a tragic massacre,” Hamas said in a statement.
The Israeli army did not respond on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, it confirmed it had attacked the camp and said it had targeted a Hamas commander, Ibrahim Biari, considered one of those responsible for the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas’s bloody Oct. 7 attack in Israel.
According to Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli army spokesman, he was in “a vast complex of underground tunnels from where he directed operations.”
Dozens of people were killed in the bombing on Tuesday. At least 47 bodies wrapped in shrouds were seen on AFPTV video lying on the ground in a hospital courtyard after being pulled from the rubble.
“Israel claims… that there are tunnels and weapons here. They encountered a neighborhood full of young and old people. (…) There is no resistance (from Hamas fighters, editor’s note),” said 30-year-old Jabaliya camp resident Abdul Issa Massoud to AFP on Wednesday.
These attacks on Jabaliya met with strong criticism, particularly at the United Nations.
Its Secretary General Antonio Guterres was “shocked” by Israel’s bombings “in residential areas of the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp,” said his spokesman.
A Hamas Health Ministry report said 8,796 people, including 3,648 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war with Israel began.
The trigger was the unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, in which more than 1,400 people were killed.