Sun Oct 20 02:10:57 UTC 2024: Updated – October 20, 2024 07:41 am IST – Gaza Strip, Palestinian TerritoriesGaza government media office confirmed the toll, saying the dead included women and children as the strike had hit a “densely populated residential area”. Representational file image. | Photo Credit: Reuters
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Sunday (October 20, 2024) that an Israeli air strike on a residential area killed at least 73 Palestinians in Beit Lahia in the territory’s north. Israel said it struck a “Hamas terror target”.
“Our civil defence crews recovered 73 martyrs and a large number of wounded as a result of the Israeli air force targeting a residential area… in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency told AFP.Also read |Israel-Hamas war: Freedom of expression threatened more seriously in Gaza than in any recent conflict, says UN expert
“There are still martyrs under the rubble,” he added.
Mr. Bassal said residences of several families had been hit in the strike, which happened late on Saturday (October 19, 2024).Gaza government media office confirmed the toll, saying the dead included women and children as the strike had hit a “densely populated residential area”.
Israel’s military disputed the toll figure given by Gaza authorities.
It said its initial examination indicated that the numbers “do not align with the information held by the IDF [army], the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike on a Hamas terror target”.It did not offer other details as to who the target of the strike was.
Israel, vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in northern Gaza, launched a major air and ground assault on October 6, tightening its siege on the war-battered area and sending tens of thousands of people fleeing.
Prior to the latest strike, the operation had already killed more than 400 people in north Gaza, Mr. Bassal told AFP earlier on Saturday.
Published – October 20, 2024 07:40 am IST
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