Authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 33 people, including 21 women, in a refugee camp in northern Gaza.
There was no immediate comment on the reported attack on Jabalia, where Israeli forces have been besieging the camp in the populated area for weeks.
The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar this week raised some hopes of an end to the war, but the group’s deputy leader said it would only strengthen Hamas.
US President Joe Biden said there was a possibility of “working toward a ceasefire” in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah militants, but it would be “more difficult in Gaza.”
He spoke as he left the German capital, Berlin, where he met with leaders of Germany, France and Britain.
Friday’s airstrike hit the homes of three families in the camp, injuring more than 85 people, some seriously, according to a statement from Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office.
Some people were trapped under building rubble, adding that the final death toll could reach 50.
This report could not be independently verified. According to local sources, northern Gaza is virtually isolated, with telecommunications and internet services in the area cut off.
A video circulating on social media, which the BBC has not confirmed, shows bodies wrapped in white shrouds lined up in the courtyard of Al Awda hospital.
The hospital director told reporters about the overwhelming number of casualties.
“Paramedics are still trying to rescue the martyrs and injured from Jabalia,” the chief said.
“Our wards are full and many injured people are being treated on the floor.”
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said on Friday before the latest attack that at least 39 Palestinians, many of them in Jabalia, were killed in Israeli strikes, according to Reuters.
Some 400,000 people have been trapped in camps for more than two weeks with little food or water.
Georgios Petropoulos, director of the UN Humanitarian Office, told the BBC’s NewsHour program that Jabaria’s family was enduring “horrible conditions”.
“We are not sounding the alarm enough about how dire and dangerous the situation is for civilians there,” he said from Rafah in southern Gaza.
Israel said on Friday it had sent about 30 trucks loaded with supplies such as food, water, medical supplies and evacuation equipment to northern Gaza, but local health officials told Reuters the aid would go to the hardest-hit areas, including Jabalia. He said that it has not reached the areas where he was living.
Israel has repeatedly denied that it is blocking the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, but the United States has directed Israel to expand access or some of its military aid will be cut off. It is said to be at risk of being discontinued.
Israeli Minister Amichai Tsikri told the BBC that Israel had “blockaded” parts of northern Gaza, including Jabalia.
“We allowed civilians to flee to safe areas and blocked the flow of supplies into the blockaded areas,” he told the NewsHour program.
He claimed this was “legal according to international law.”
At least 42,500 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured in the Gaza Strip since Hamas-led attacks on Israel exactly one year ago, Hamas-led authorities say.
Approximately 1,200 people were killed by Hamas and its allies in the October 7, 2023 attack, and another 251 were taken to Gaza as hostages.
On Friday, Hamas deputy leader Khalil al-Haya said Israeli hostages would not be returned until Israel ends the war and withdraws from Gaza.
Shinwar was held responsible for the October 7 attack. The Israeli military said a man was killed in a gunfight when the building he was hiding in in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was hit by “tank fire.”
The Israeli pathologist who performed his autopsy told US media that he had been shot in the head.
Dr. Chen Kugel also found damage to his right forearm from a “missile launch,” damage to his left leg from “falling stones,” and damage from shrapnel.
