At least 87 killed in strike on northern Gaza, officials say, as UN warns ‘nowhere is safe’

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has said at least 87 people were killed and more than 40 injured in Saturday’s Israeli air strike on the city of Beit Lahiya in the north of the Palestinian enclave.

The ministry said a number of people were still under the rubble after a residential area was hit.

Israel said it was checking reports of casualties but added that earlier – lower – figures published by Hamas were “exaggerated”. In recent weeks, the Israel military has been carrying out intense bombardment of northern Gaza, saying it wanted to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping there. 

A senior UN official warned that the “nightmare in Gaza is intensifying” and the war “must stop now”.

The UN’s peace process co-ordinator, Tor Wennesland, said that “nowhere is safe in Gaza”.

In a statement, Tor Wennesland said he condemned the continuing attacks on civilians.

“This war must end, the hostages held by Hamas must be freed, the displacement of Palestinians must cease, and civilians must be protected wherever they are. Humanitarian aid must be delivered unimpeded,” he said.

In a statement on Sunday, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry revised its death toll from 73 to 87 after the Israeli strike on Beit Lahia. 

The earlier casualty figures were provided by Hamas late on Saturday. 

The ministry also said that ambulance crews were unable to reach the site of the Israeli strike.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described the strike as a “precision” attack on a “Hamas terror target”. It told the BBC it was “doing everything possible to avoid causing harm to civilians”.

Dr Eid Sabbah, Kamal Adwan Hospital’s director of nursing, said the Israeli strike in Beit Lahia had completely destroyed several buildings, with “more than four, five residential blocks… razed to the ground”.

The strikes targeted an entire residential square, Dr Sabbah said, in between Abu Jidian roundabout and Al Qassam mosque.

Dr Sabbah added that dozens of people were killed and many were wounded “some of whom reached the hospital, some of whom remain under the rubble”.

He urged for an end to the “siege” on hospitals in northern Gaza and “for life to return to normal… before it’s too late, before our nation is exterminated”.

Several images – including the one below – have since emerged on social media showing the treatment of the injured from Beit Lahia at the Kamal Adwan Hospital.

The images have been verified by the BBC as being from the hospital.