Israel’s recent offensive in northern Gaza has killed more than 700 people in a little over three weeks, with nearly 300 of those deaths, mainly in the north, occurring in the past nine days alone. While it has attempted to justify its renewed focus on the north by claiming it is targeting regrouped Hamas fighters, the intensity of the fighting has caused heavy losses among the 100,000 civilians still living there. Many of them are families who, exhausted by Israel’s multiple forced displacement orders, have chosen to stay in the north.
The Israeli military has repeatedly struck shelters for displaced people across Gaza, saying it is carrying out precise strikes targeting Palestinian militants and has tried to avoid harming civilians. The strikes have often killed women and children. These are the reported deaths in the past nine days:
20 October
At least 87 people were killed overnight when an Israeli airstrike hit several multi-storey buildings in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Images suggested two or three big blocks of flats were demolished in the strike.
Graphic footage afterwards showed the bodies of several children among the dead, while footage from the nearby Kamal Adwan hospital showed body bags.
Israel has said the casualty figures were exaggerated, despite evidence of civilian deaths.
The UN special coordinator for the peace process in the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, said after the airstrike: “The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying … Horrifying scenes are unfolding in the northern strip amidconflict, relentless Israeli strikes and an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis.”
23 October
Israeli strikes across Gaza kill 42 people during an intense bombardment; 37 deaths were in northern Gaza.
The Gaza health ministry and the World Health Organization announced they would be unable to start a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza as planned because of fighting, mass displacements and lack of access.
The Gaza civil emergency service said three of its rescuers were wounded in northern Gaza in a “targeted strike” that aimed to force them out of Jabaliya, hours after the Israeli army ordered some civil emergency staff to leave the camp.
Among the dead was a worker for the UN Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa, which said one of its staff members had been killed when an Unrwa vehicle was hit in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.
24 October
With Israel’s siege of northern Gaza in its 19th day, at least 31 Palestinians were killed in the Jabaliya refugee camp in a 24-hour period.
27 October
Officials in Gaza said at least 45 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli attacks. Many were in Jabaliya, which was hit by an airstrike. Israel said it had targeted militants.
Israeli forces withdrew from one of northern Gaza’s last functioning medical facilities, leaving a trail of destruction after a days-long siege.
29 October
Scores of Palestinians, including many women and children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a crowded block of flats in Beit Lahiya.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said 93 people had been killed and 40 were missing, as emergency workers dug through the rubble on Tuesday looking for the dead and injured. Many of those in the block were members of the extended Abu Nasr family.
