At least 29 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a multi-storey residential building in eastern Gaza City, a local hospital said.
The civil defense agency operated by Hamas said the fighter jets targeted the area near the Al-Hawashi mosque near Shejaiya on Tuesday morning.
It said eight children were dead and more than 60 were injured, and rescue workers were still looking for another two dozen under the rubble.
The Israeli military said it attacked a “high-level Hamas terrorist” responsible for the attacks in the area.
It added that many steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of “precision weapons.”
The military also accused Hamas of deliberately using civilians as human shields for violating international law.
Shejaiya’s video shows the dust-covered body of the child being taken away by distraught relatives and rescue workers.
Ayub Salim, 26, told AFP that the area around the residential building that was attacked Tuesday morning was “crowded with tents, displaced people and houses”.
He said it was hit by “multiple missiles” and “shells flew in all directions.”
“The dust and great destruction filled the whole place, we couldn’t see anything, just people screaming and panic,” he added. “It was a horrible massacre, indeed.”
Hamas also said that the Israeli military “had committed a bloody massacre.”
Last week after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of the community, thousands of Shejaiya residents fled, saying the resident was destroying “terrorist infrastructure” by force.
Israeli troops say the strike targets senior Hamas figures [AFP]
Earlier on Tuesday, Gaza’s Hamas Ministry of Health said at least 33 people were killed in the Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours.
It is reported that Israel has been killed in total since March 18 resumed air and ground movements against Hamas.
The United Nations said another 390,000 people have been displaced in the past three weeks, and are currently designated by the Israeli military as a “no-operation” zone or two-thirds of the evacuation order.
The UN also warned that supplies of food, medicine and fuel have been dry as Israel blocked any humanitarian aid for a month to put pressure on Hamas.
Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the Israeli blockade on Tuesday, saying it violated international law and opened a “gate of horror.”
He added: “Gaza is a field of murder and civilians are in an endless cycle of death.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry rejected Guterres’ criticism, saying that he “when spreading slander against Israel, facts do not hinder the facts.”
“There is no shortage of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip – more than 25,000 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip within 42 days of the ceasefire. Hamas used this aid to rebuild its war machine.”
On Monday, heads of six UN humanitarian agencies described Israel’s assertion that Gaza has enough food to make Gaza’s 2.1 million people “far from reality.”
They called for the protection of civilians, the promotion of aid delivery, the release of Hamas hostages and the renewal of a ceasefire.
Mediators are continuing their attempts to revive the ceasefire, which began on January 19 and saw Hamas release 33 Israeli hostages – eight of which died – five Thai hostages in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and surge in humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
Israel said Israel resumed its offense as Hamas refused to accept a proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire deal and released more of the 59 hostages it still holds, up to 24 people believed to be alive.
Hamas accused Israel of violating the original agreement, under which all the remaining hostages will be handed over in the second phase, and the war will end permanently.
The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the unprecedented cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, with about 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostages.
More than 50,840 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the region’s Ministry of Health.
