An Israeli air attack on a three-storey building in Gaza City has killed eight children and two women from an extended family, according to residents, in the deadliest single strike since the fighting began this week.
Efforts to recover casualties from under the rubble of the house on the edge of Shati refugee camp were ongoing.
Mohammed Hadidi told reporters his wife and five children had gone to celebrate the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday with relatives. She and three of the children, aged six to 14, were killed, while an 11-year-old is missing. Only his five-month-old son, Omar, is known to have survived.
Children’s toys and a Monopoly board game could be seen among the rubble, the Associated Press reported, as well as plates of uneaten food from the holiday gathering.
“There was no warning,” said Jamal Al-Naji, a neighbour living in the same building. “You filmed people eating and then you bombed them?” he said, addressing Israel. “Why are you confronting us? Go and confront the strong people.”
Said Alghoul, who lives nearby, said Israeli warplanes dropped at least three bombs on the house without warning its residents in advance. “I saw the bodies of four people, including children, being rushed to the hospital,” he said. “I could not endure and ran back to my home.”
Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the strike, but said in a statement that it had attacked “a number of Hamas terror organisation senior officials, in an apartment used as terror infrastructure in the area of the al-Shati refugee camp”.
Hours after the attack, militants in Gaza launched a heavy barrage of rockets into central Israel, with air raid sirens blared in Tel Aviv and other cities as air defences fired missiles to intercept the incoming fire. Israeli medics reported they had failed to resuscitate a 50-year-old man found in a rocket-damaged apartment, and pronounced him dead.
In a significant escalation in the worst bout of fighting between Israel and Hamas for seven years, heavy fire on Friday was aimed at what the Israeli military said was a large network of militant tunnels. Dozens of Hamas operatives were killed in the strikes, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
The barrage, which the Israeli military said involved 160 warplanes dropping about 80 tonnes of explosives over 40 minutes, killed a family of six in their house and sent thousands fleeing.
A spokesperson had said that some measures aimed at minimising collateral damage, such as warning shots to get civilians to leave sites before attacks, were not “feasible this time”, according to the Associated Press.
Barrages of rockets are being fired non-stop from Gaza into southern Israel.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 15, 2021
Tonight, a rocket hit the city of Ashdod—see the damage for yourself.
This won’t go unanswered. pic.twitter.com/2ByndSi79u
Palestinian fatalities from strikes on Gaza stand at more than 132, including 32 children. About 950 people have been injured. The UN said 10,000 residents had been forced from their homes by the bombardment.
Nine people have died in Israel, including two children and a soldier patrolling the Gaza frontier, and more than 560 people have been wounded.
Saturday presents a dangerous moment in the recent crisis. Palestinians will mark the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, commemorating more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Israeli forces have killed protesters at previous rallies.
Palestinians living in areas close to the Gaza-Israel border have fled their homes in pickup trucks, on donkeys and on foot. Some went to UN-run schools in Gaza City, carrying small children, household essentials and food.
Hedaia Maarouf, who left her home with her extended family of 19 people, including 13 children, said: “We were terrified for our children, who were screaming and shaking.”
The escalating tensions came as the US secretary for Israel-Palestinian affairs, Hady Amr, arrived in Israel on Friday as part of mediation efforts.
Egypt was leading regional efforts to secure a ceasefire, and the UN said the security council would meet on Sunday to discuss Gaza.
The UN also said more than 200 homes and 24 schools in Gaza had been destroyed or severely damaged in Israeli air raids in the past five days. It also said residents’ access to fresh water could be limited because of power cuts and damage to pipe networks.
Increased power blackouts were expected as fuel supplies ran low. Most families already have power for only four or five hours a day, and hospitals have been forced to rely on generators.
Another extraordinary image from #Gaza - #Israel, showing rocket fire (left) and the resulting #IronDome launches (right).
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) May 15, 2021
Shockingly beautiful sight, masking the terrible violence that it represents. pic.twitter.com/kCEV9LVTov
More than 2,000 rockets have been fired at the Jewish state since Monday .
The fighting in blockaded Gaza, the worst since a 2014 war, exploded following hostilities in East Jerusalem, the Israeli-annexed part of the city where Palestinians hope to establish a future capital.
Fresh overnight tensions hit the east Jerusalem area of Shuafat, where young, masked Palestinian protesters set debris on fire as Israeli police responded with teargas.
The West Bank also saw fierce fighting on Friday, with the Palestinian health ministry saying 11 people were killed by Israeli fire.
A Palestinian security source said the fighting was the “most intense” since the second intifada, or uprising, that began in 2000.
The latest violence in the occupied West Bank is closely linked to the events in Jerusalem and Gaza. From Ramallah to Hebron and across the territory occupied by Israel since 1967, Palestinians hurled stones, molotov cocktails and other projectiles.
Israeli forces hit back with rubber bullets and, in some instances, live rounds.
Within Israel, an unprecedented wave of mob violence has seen Arabs and Jews savagely attack each other, with synagogues and mosques set alight.
More than 750 people have been arrested this week, police said.
Reuters contributed to this article
