Israeli strikes kill 33 in Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, says civil defence

Death toll could rise with people still trapped under rubble

Rescuers and residents try to find a neighbour under the rubble of a building following Israeli bombardment in Jabalia, northern Gaza. AFP

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Thirty-three people were killed and dozens others were wounded in Israeli strikes on Friday night that hit several houses in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, which has been under siege for two weeks, the enclave's civil defence said.

The Gaza government media office said 21 women were among those killed and the death toll from the strikes could rise because people were believed to be trapped under the rubble. It said that 85 were injured in the attacks.

Residents of Jabalia said Israeli tanks had reached the heart of the camp after pushing through suburbs and residential districts. They said the Israeli army was destroying dozens of houses daily, from the air and the ground, and by placing demolition charges in buildings then triggering them by remote control.

On October 6, Israel launched an offensive in northern Gaza, including around Jabalia, saying it was targeting Hamas fighters who were regrouping there. Since then, scores of people have been killed in the area, which had already been hit hard by fighting earlier in the year-long war.

The UN humanitarian affairs agency said on Friday night that it continued “to sound the alarm about the increasingly dire and dangerous situation that civilians in northern Gaza are facing. Families there are trying to survive in atrocious conditions, under heavy bombardment”.

Israeli tanks also fired on the Indonesian Hospital in the north, where patients, medical crew and displaced families are sheltering.

“After midnight, the occupation forces targeted the upper floors of the hospital with artillery,” the hospital's director, Dr Marwan Sultan, told The National.

He said more than 40 patients and wounded people were trapped inside the hospital, along with the medical staff, by Israeli gunfire and shelling.

“The army began demolishing the hospital’s wall, cut off its electricity, and created a state of immense fear and panic among the staff and patients,” Dr Sultan said.

Northern Gaza, which had been home to more than half the territory's 2.3 million people, was bombed to rubble in the first phase of Israel's assault a year ago.

“People are hiding inside rooms, trying to calm their children, searching for a sense of safety that doesn’t exist,” Mohammed Wadi, trapped with his family near the hospital, said. “Bodies of the wounded and dead lie in the streets, with no one able to reach them for evacuation or transport to hospitals.”

Mr Wafi said no one dared to flee during the night because of the relentless shelling and shooting.

In central Gaza, at least 11 Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on a house in Al Maghazi camp at dawn on Saturday, Wafa news agency reported. People are still trapped under the rubble, medical workers said.

Those sources said 64 people had been killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, including Jabalia, since Friday morning, according to Wafa.

Israel began its military campaign after the October 7 attacks on the south of the country by Hamas-led fighters, who killed 1,200 people and captured 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 42,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive so far, according to Gaza's health authorities.

Appeal for hospital supply

On Friday, health officials appealed for fuel, medical supplies and food to be sent immediately to three northern Gaza hospitals overwhelmed by the number of patients and injuries.

At the Kamal Adwan Hospital, doctors said they had to replace children in intensive care with more critical cases of adults badly wounded by Israeli air strikes on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Jabalia on Thursday.

Israel claimed it had targeted militants operating in the school. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, said on X that the attack on the school was the third on an UNRWA facility this week, and that the agency had lost 231 team members in the past year of fighting.

Kamal Adwan's director, Hussam Abu Safia, said in a video sent to media that the children had been moved to another division inside the hospital, where they were being cared for. He said medical staff were exhausted and hospital supplies, including food, were badly depleted.