At least 93 dead or missing after Israel hammers north Gaza

After another day of Israel's relentless airstrikes in its north Gaza offensive, Palestinians rushed to a bombed-out four-storey house of neighbors on Tuesday in a desperate search for any survivors.

The missile strike left a house of horror, with at least 93 dead or missing among mainly members of the extended Abu Naser family, the owners, as well as displaced people crammed into every available space, according to Gaza's health ministry.

With most of the world focused on Israel's military campaign in Lebanon against Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israel has for more than three weeks been heavily bombarding north Gaza in its year-old war against Hamas after its militants allegedly regrouped there.

At the Abu Naser house, neighbors scrabbled through mounds of concrete wreckage, wrapped whatever remains they could find in blankets, and lowered them by rope from a balcony to be laid on the blood-splattered ground, next to intact bodies of others.

People dragged aside chunks of dusty masonry and twisted wire, revealing the limbs of victims trapped underneath, many of them lifeless as they were eased out. The Gaza health ministry said at least 20 of those killed were children.

"There are tens of martyrs (dead) - tens of displaced people were living in this house. The house was bombed without prior warning," Ismail Ouaida, a witness who was helping to recover bodies, said in a video shared on social media.

"As you can see, martyrs are here and there, with body parts hanging from the walls."

The health ministry said earlier that at least 60 people were confirmed dead and dozens wounded in the strike in Beit Lahiya, a town widely devastated by Israeli airstrikes and shelling. There was no immediate Israeli military comment.

Israel has accused Hamas of concealing armed militants among civilians in residential and public buildings including schools and hospitals, which it denies. Hamas and Palestinian civilians accuse Israel of indiscriminate bombing, a charge it rejects.

Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, and the nearby towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun have been traumatised by a new Israeli air and ground assault Palestinian medics say has killed around 900 people.

The Israeli military has said the operations aim to prevent a revival of Hamas in the area and that hundreds of militants have been killed and their combat infrastructure dismantled.

Local residents rejected Israel's rationale.

The death toll from Israel's air and ground offensive in Gaza triggered by a lightning cross-border Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 has exceeded 43,000, the Gaza health ministry said.

"North Gaza is a place of hell - a big operation of killing, destruction, rubble, makeshift graveyards and famine," Adnan Abu Hasna, Gaza media spokesperson for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA told Reuters in Cairo.

Israel's decision on Monday to ban UNRWA, citing the role of some local staff in the Oct. 7 attack, has raised fears among Israel's Western allies that this will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

US says Israel not yet doing enough

The United States rejects "any Israeli efforts to starve Palestinians in Jabalia, or anywhere else" in the Gaza Strip, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Tuesday.

"Israel's words must be matched by action on the ground. Right now, that is not happening. This must change - immediately," she told the U.N. Security Council.

The United States told its ally Israel in a letter on Oct. 13 that it must take steps within 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face potential restrictions on U.S. military aid.

Israel began a wide military offensive in northern Gaza earlier this month.

Thomas-Greenfield said on Oct. 16 that Washington was watching to ensure Israel's actions on the ground show it does not have a "policy of starvation" in the north.

On Monday, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza without medical or food supplies.