According to an Al Jazeera report, the overnight raid hit several houses and a multistorey residential building, known as the Beit Lahiya Project, the Gaza Government Media Office stated.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Sunday 87 people were killed or missing under the rubble after the attack, adding that more than 40 people were injured.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by a communications blackout and road obstructions in the north of the enclave, where a 16-day Israeli military siege has cut off access to food, water, medicine and essential services.
Beit Lahiya is a city in the north of the Gaza Strip close to Jabalia and Beit Hanoon. All three cities are severely affected by the Israeli offensive that has also resulted in severed phone and internet access.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said “the extent of the brutality of the latest attack” in Beit Lahiya keeps unfolding, “with many people still buried under massive piles of rubble”.
Mahmoud said, “A witness from the area described the massive explosion resulting from multiple air strikes shaking the very foundations of the surrounding areas.”
He said large chunks of concrete have blocked the path to the bombed-out areas, making it difficult for paramedics and Palestinian Civil Defence members to conduct rescue missions in Beit Lahiya, resulting in more casualties, the majority of them women, children and elderly.
Also reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said, “Civil defence teams are trying to pull people out from under the rubble, either with their bare hands or with minimum equipment,” adding that they were able to rescue a baby girl from the site on Sunday.
Among those killed in the attack in Beit Lahiya were at least 10 relatives of Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent Anas al-Sharif.
Al-Sharif wrote in a post on social media platform X, “Today, while covering the massacre by Israeli occupation forces in [Beit Lahiya], I was shocked to discover that one of the homes targeted in the airstrike belonged to my cousin.”
An earlier Israeli military attack in Jabalia killed at least 33 Palestinians. Residents and medics said Israeli forces have been tightening their siege on the Jabalia refugee camp, the largest of the enclave’s eight historical camps.
