Gaza: Jabaliya camp again targeted by Israeli strike, Palestinian rescuers say

The second strike will occur in two days. Civil defense in Gaza announced that the Israeli army bombed the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip again on Wednesday, where a first strike on Tuesday killed dozens of people.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army confirmed that it had struck the giant camp and killed the Hamas leader who was among those responsible for the Islamist group’s October 7 attack on Israel. According to Tel Aviv, about 1,400 Israelis and dual citizens in the Jewish state died in the attack, while hundreds of others were taken hostage by Hamas.

However, Palestinian authorities said the explosion killed dozens of civilians. AFPTV journalists were able to observe the presence of at least 47 bodies covered with tarpaulins at the scene.

The Hamas-led Palestinian Civil Defense said Wednesday’s new bombing had “killed entire families.” The Hamas Health Ministry, which has the only reports of deaths in the Palestinian enclave since the start of the war, for its part mentioned “dozens of martyrs and wounded.”

While no assessment was immediately available from an independent source, AFPTV images showed the strike caused massive destruction in the camp, where several buildings were destroyed.

Since the October 7 attack, Israel has shelled the Palestinian enclave. The explosions killed more than 8,700 Gazans, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.

UN condemns ‘new atrocity’

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths condemned the new Israeli strike on Wednesday. “This is just the latest atrocity to hit the people of Gaza, where the fighting has entered an even more horrific phase with increasingly dire humanitarian consequences,” he said in a statement.

“In the Gaza Strip, women, children and men are starving, injured and killed by explosions. They have lost all faith in humanity and all hope for the future,” insisted Martin Griffiths after returning from a trip to Israel and the West Bank, while reiterating his condemnation of the “brutal” Hamas attacks on October 7.

“Meanwhile, the world seems unable or even unwilling to act. This cannot continue,” he added, calling for “repeated humanitarian pauses” in the fighting to allow Hamas to deliver more humanitarian aid and release hostages. “Failure to act now will have consequences far beyond the region because this is a global crisis,” he warned.