Palestinian authorities in Gaza on Tuesday said more than 50 people killed and 150 others wounded in Israeli air raid on Jabalia refugee camp.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 50 people were killed and 150 wounded by an Israeli air strike, which it denounced as a “horrific massacre.”
Pictures showed people climbing through several large craters and searching for survivors inside wrecked buildings.
As the battle inside Gaza intensified, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed international calls for a halt to the fighting.
But UN and other aid officials warned that a public health catastrophe was engulfing civilians in Gaza, with hospitals struggling to cope with mounting casualties and food, medicine, drinking water and fuel running short.
The director of Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital told Al Jazeera that more than 50 Palestinians were killed and 150 wounded in Israeli air strikes on a densely populated area of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The tunnels under the cramped enclave are a prime objective for Israel as it expands a four-day-old ground offensive - after three weeks of aerial bombardment - into Gaza from the north to hit Hamas in retaliation for the resistance group’s campaign into southern Israel on October 7.
Some of the 240 hostages that Israel says were seized by Hamas that day are believed to be held in the tunnel complex, adding a further complication for the Israelis on top of the difficulties of fighting in an urban setting.
“Over the last day, combined IDF (Israel Defence Forces) struck approximately 300 targets, including anti-tank missile and rocket launch posts below shafts, as well as military compounds inside underground tunnels belonging to Hamas,” an Israeli military statement said.
The group responded with anti-tank missiles and machine gun fire, it said. A number of militants were killed, it said, without specifying a number.
Hamas said in a statement its fighters were engaging in fierce battles with Israeli ground forces, who were taking losses. “The occupation is pushing its soldiers into proud Gaza, which will always be the cemetery of invaders,” Hamas said.
Israeli forces also bombed the narrow coastal enclave overnight in air, sea and ground attacks, hitting northwestern areas, witnesses said on Tuesday.
On Monday, Israeli forces targeted Gaza’s main north-south road and attacked Gaza City, its northern hub, from two directions.
Gaza health authorities say that 8,525 people, including 3,542 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7. UN officials say more than 1.4 million of Gaza’s civilian population of about 2.3 million have been made homeless.