At least 88 people, including many women and children, were killed in two Israeli air strikes in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Health officials gave this information.
A hospital director said patients suffering from life-threatening injuries were not being treated after several doctors were detained during a raid by Israeli forces over the weekend.
Israel stepped up airstrikes in northern Gaza in recent weeks and launched a major ground campaign. He said this was to eliminate Hamas militants who had regrouped after more than a year of war.
The fierce fighting has raised concerns about the deteriorating humanitarian situation for thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza. Concerns over not enough aid reaching Gaza grew on Monday when Israel’s parliament passed two bills that could block the UN agency dealing with Palestinian refugees from delivering aid to Gaza.
Israel controls both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and it is unclear how the agency would operate there. Gaza’s health ministry’s emergency service said two attacks took place on Tuesday in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya.
The first attack targeted a five-storey building, killing at least 70 people and leaving 23 missing. The ministry said more than half of those killed were women and children. At least 18 people were killed in a second attack on Beit Lahiya on Tuesday evening, according to the Health Ministry.
