Editor’s note: This story contains graphic details of a violent attack.
TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli airstrike on a building in northern Gaza overnight killed at least 60 Palestinians and wounded more, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, in one of the deadliest attacks in weeks.
The strike hit a five-story building in the area of Beit Lahiya, where families of displaced Palestinians were taking shelter. At least 25 of those killed were children, according to health officials.
The Israeli military said it is aware of civilian deaths and is “looking into” the incident.
The attack comes as Israeli forces have hindered medical and rescue services in the area, and as Israeli parliament voted to ban the main United Nations agency that provides aid to Palestinians, UNRWA.
“This strike is yet another in a deadly series of recent mass casualty incidents in the northern part of the Gaza Strip,” Tor Wennesland, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. “We are witnessing not only a horrific humanitarian nightmare, but a rapidly accelerated unraveling of the prospects for a sustainable resolution to this conflict.”
Last week, the Israeli military demanded that Gaza’s civil defense first responder teams leave the area in the northern part of the enclave. That meant there was no one to help pull bodies out of the rubble or administer first aid.
The Israeli military also raided the closest hospital over the weekend, destroying much of it, including the morgue, according to hospital officials.
Civilians were left to rescue people on their own, and bury the dead in the street.
Freelance photojournalist Islam Ahmed says he was one of those who ran to the rescue after the Monday night Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahiya. Through voice notes to NPR, he describes the carnage.
“I saw human parts and women’s dead bodies naked on streets. The situation is extremely difficult,” he says. He says he saw body parts of several dead children, too.
He and other neighbors tried to dig through the rubble with their hands, he says, without tools or the civil defense teams who usually would carry out search and rescues but were blocked by Israeli forces. “These were not the hands of paramedics or well-trained people, it was the hands of us, the neighbors,” he says.
“This was a horrifying incident with a horrifying result,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask what happened here.”
Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza after the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, vowing to eliminate the Palestinian militant group for killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Since then, the Israeli campaign has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Earlier this month, Israel widened its military campaign in northern Gaza, saying it was targeting shattered Hamas brigades that were regrouping there.
Israel raised further international concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza when its lawmakers passed legislation that could hinder UNRWA from doing its work in Gaza. One of the laws bars it from operating in Israel, which controls access to Gaza and the occupied West Bank where the agency operates. Israel alleges UNRWA has staff who took part in last year’s October attack.
The U.N. and independent humanitarian groups say UNRWA is essential for lifesaving operations on the ground in Gaza. “This could potentially be a final knockout blow to the humanitarian response, certainly in Gaza,” says Kate Phillips-Barrasso of the charity Mercy Corps.
Anas Baba contributed to this report from Gaza; Abu Bakr Bashir contributed from London.