Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed 90 Palestinians on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza told media.
Hamas Aqsa radio, quoting the director of the Health Ministry, previously said dozens were wounded.
"Jabalia suffered tank, air, and naval bombardment overnight, it has been suffering a brutal war for days, people are dying in the streets and we can't get to them," a medic on the ground who declined to give a name fearing Israeli reprisal told Reuters by telephone.
"We believe the number of dead people under the rubble is huge, but there is no way to remove the rubble and recover them because of the intensity of Israeli fire."
The Israeli military has previously said its troops in Jabalia had found weapons in a bag marked UNRWA (the name of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees) and rocket launchers near a school, and distributed a video showing explosive devices next to a bag marked UNRWA. Reuters was not able to independently verify the footage.
Fighting has intensified amid the rubble of northern Gaza, where Israel had previously claimed its military objectives against Hamas militants had been largely met.
The Israeli military said its troops had found weapons and a tunnel used by militants to attack troops in Shejaia, a suburb near Gaza City, and destroyed a weapons storage facility in the home of a Hamas operative. The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, said its fighters targeted Israeli forces in Gaza City with mortar bombs.
In central Gaza, medics in Deir al-Balah said 12 Palestinians had been killed and dozens were wounded.
In the south, Khan Younis residents reported hearing Israeli planes and tanks bombing and shelling, and the sound of rocket-propelled grenades, apparently fired by Hamas.
Palestinians wounded in Israeli airstrikes arrive at a hospital.
The Israeli military said it had killed seven "terrorists" in an air strike on Khan Younis and found rocket manufacturing parts and three tunnel shafts near a school used as a shelter. It also said it had struck the local Hamas commander's office and gained control over the central Bani Suheila Square.
Israel said it had operated against "terrorist" targets.
Israel launched its campaign to annihilate Hamas, which controls Gaza, after militants launched a surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 and seizing some 240 hostages, according to a tally by Israeli officials. Hamas has also regularly fired rockets at Israel since then.
A helicopter fires a missile while flying.
In response to the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli forces have besieged the Palestinian enclave and laid much of it to waste, with more than 18,000 people confirmed killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and many thousands more feared lost in the rubble or beyond the reach of ambulances. Regular communications blackouts also make tallies difficult.
The vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes over the past two months, many several times as Israel has bombarded locations where it previously told Palestinians to relocate.
Source: CBC News
BDST: 0835 HRS, DEC 18, 2023
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