Israel's strike on a Gaza house has killed many, say health and rescue workers

Dozens of people were killed and injured in an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, northern Gaza, Palestinian health and rescue workers said.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa and the Hamas-affiliated civil defense organization in Gaza said at least 30 people were killed. The security forces said the dead included 13 children.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it raided a site in Jabalia where “terrorists were operating”, measures have been taken to minimize casualties and the details are still being updated.

Aid groups say Jabalia and other parts of northern Gaza have been under siege since early October when Israel began attacking Hamas.

Israel faces a US deadline that expires within days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face possible restrictions on military cooperation.

Dr. Fadel Naim, director of Al-Ahly Hospital in Gaza City, told AP news that his center has received 17 bodies from Jabalia so far, including nine women, and the death toll is likely to rise.

Eyewitnesses described the Israeli strike on a building allegedly belonging to the Alloush family as an “earthquake”.

“We were sitting in peace. These are innocent citizens who do not belong to a military organization or group,” eyewitness Hamza Alloush told Reuters.

The house was “bombed over the heads of the residents without warning, resulting in the killing of all the people inside. Those who were lucky enough to survive were thrown into the trees, over the neighbors, and the remains are still scattered under the rubble”, he said.

Videos and photos showed many bodies wrapped in blankets after the cars collapsed at the hospital.

Israel does not allow the BBC and other international media to enter Gaza to report independently, which makes it difficult to verify the facts on the ground, so we tend to rely on information from photographs and witness testimony.

Another strike in Gaza City killed an official of the social department and seven members of his family, including his wife and children, doctors and relatives.

The UN previously said the “darkest period” of the Gaza war is taking place in the northern part of the territory.

On Saturday, Israel rejected warnings of famine in northern Gaza from international food security experts, saying the group relied on “partial, biased information and superficial sources with ambitions”.

The Independent Famine Review Committee (FRC), an independent organization for analyzing famine, said that there are many chances of famine and that measures must be taken immediately to alleviate the dire situation.

Israel said it had stepped up aid efforts, including opening another crossing on Friday to get more aid into southern Gaza.

The IDF later said it delivered 11 trucks of food, water and medical aid to Jabalia and Beit Hanoun on Thursday.

On Friday, the UN Human Rights Office said that almost 70% of Gaza's victims in the past six months were women and children.

About 80% of the victims were killed in residential buildings or similar homes, the UN said.

It says the high number of civilian deaths is largely due to Israel's use of weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas, although some deaths may be the result of indiscriminate firing by Palestinian armed groups.

Israel has previously stated that it is targeting Hamas and is taking steps to reduce the risk to civilians through the use of direct weapons.

Meanwhile, efforts to reach a ceasefire have stalled, with Qatar suspending its work as a mediator until Hamas and Israel “show willingness” to negotiate.

The health ministry run by Hamas in Gaza, whose statistics the UN considers reliable, reported a death toll of more than 43,600 people since the war began. Many other bodies are believed to be still under the rubble of bombed buildings.

In the past 24 hours, 51 bodies from the attack on Israel have been brought to hospitals, the ministry said.

Israel launched its current military offensive in Gaza after a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 that killed around 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages back to Gaza.