Israeli strikes on a residential block in Beit Lahia, a town in northern Gaza, killed and wounded dozens of people on Saturday night, according to the Palestinian civil defense, the enclave’s emergency response service.
Details of the attacks were scarce and it was difficult to reach people in northern Gaza by phone. Medhat Abbas, a spokesman for the health ministry in Gaza, said that communication in northern Gaza where the Israeli military has been operating was “completely cut off.”
Israel began a military offensive in the northern part of the enclave several weeks ago, targeting what it said was a regrouped Hamas presence in the area.
The Israeli military confirmed the strike in Beit Lahia in a statement on Sunday, saying the air force had “conducted a precise strike” targeting Hamas fighters, adding that it had taken steps to “mitigate the risk of harming civilians.”
The Palestinian Authority’s news agency Wafa, citing medical sources, said 40 people were killed in the strikes and 80 others were wounded, including women and children.
The situation in northern Gaza has become “unbearable,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the United Nations secretary general, said Sunday, adding that 60,000 people have been displaced in the past few weeks.
Israel’s renewed military operations have resulted in “widespread devastation and deprivation,” Mr. Dujarric said, which “are making the conditions of life untenable for the Palestinian population there.”
On Friday, Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights based in Geneva, said in a statement: “Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day. The Israeli government’s policies and practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians. We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”
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