An explosion overnight in a densely populated part of the central Gaza Strip destroyed several buildings and appeared to have killed and wounded many people, photos and videos from the scene on Sunday showed.
The Gazan Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike had hit Al Maghazi — a community built up from a refugee camp established decades ago — killing at least 47 people and wounding dozens of others. It warned that the toll was expected to rise, saying that many bodies remained buried under the rubble.
Casualties were taken to nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where a photographer for The New York Times saw the injured crowding the hallways and the lifeless being prepared for burial.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military said it was looking into reports of the strike.
Israel struck an area near Gaza City last week, Jabaliya, that had also its origins as a refugee camp. Hamas, the armed group that controls Gaza, and local doctors said that hundreds of people had been wounded or killed. Israel said the strike had killed a Hamas leader and other operatives and hit a network of Hamas tunnels that it said lay below the residential buildings. The reports of many deaths and the level of destruction provoked international outrage.
Al Maghazi, which was created in 1949, is one of eight camps established to house Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the wars that surrounded Israel’s creation. The camps have generally been built up over time and become tightly packed neighborhoods.
Al Maghazi is one of the smaller camps, according to UNRWA, the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians and runs the camps. The agency said that the area was known for its “narrow alleys and a high population density,” with 33,255 people living in 0.6 square kilometers, or 0.2 square miles.
On Sunday, Mohammed al-Aloul, a photographer for Anadolu Agency, a Turkish state-run news service, said he was out working when news and videos from Al Maghazi, his neighborhood, began flooding his phone.
While scrolling through them, his biggest fear came true: Four of his five children — Qais, Ahmad, Rahaf and Kenaan — were among the lifeless bodies being pulled from under the rubble.
A few hours later, Mr. al-Aloul was leading their funeral prayer near the entrance of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, still wearing his blue press vest as he faced the children’s small shrouded bodies. Behind him, more than a dozen men prayed, some of whom had also lost children.
Inside the hospital were his only surviving family members: His youngest, 1-year-old Adam, and his wife, Amnah, who was in critical condition. Mr. al-Aloul said he also lost several other relatives in the strike.
Amnah sustained serious burns to the face, broken bones and shrapnel wounds. When a photographer for The New York Times visited her at the hospital, she was sharing a single bed with her sister-in-law, who was also in serious condition.
The hospital, like most in Gaza, was overcrowded, leaving many of the wounded to be treated in corridors. Mr. al-Aloul’s son Adam was among them, his face covered in cuts from shrapnel.
Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/world/middleeast/gaza-explosion-al-maghazi-camp.html