“MASSACRE” in Beit Lahia… Washington requests “explanations” from Israel

31st October 2024

4 minutes read

“MASSACRE” in Beit Lahia... Washington requests “explanations” from Israel

A “horrific” airstrike, according to Washington’s terms, hit a house sheltering a large number of displaced persons in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, shaping one of the most difficult scenes of the war.

Rescue workers and civilians are desperately trying to find survivors among the rubble of the residential building targeted by an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, leaving at least 93 dead.

This coincided with the circulation on Palestinian platforms of footage showing the retrieval and transport of bodies of victims after the Israeli army shelled a tent housing displaced persons west of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on Wednesday.

In Khan Younis, reports indicated that three citizens were killed in an Israeli bombing of a house in the Sheikh Nasser neighborhood, east of the city located in southern Gaza.

“Horrific” Scenes

Back in Beit Lahia, AFP images showed people in civilian clothes carrying the dead and injured, wrapped in blood-stained blankets, from the bombing site, which left significant destruction.

The images also showed bodies scattered in the streets, wrapped in covers and colored sheets, as people tried to identify them or bid farewell to their relatives.

An AFP photographer noted a horse-drawn cart loaded with bodies wrapped in white sheets as several people gathered around it.

At another location in the town, people were burying several bodies in a single grave.

At the bombing site, half a body, apparently that of a girl with long hair, dangled from a window of one of the apartments.

Meanwhile, Palestinian activists broadcast videos on social media showing several women and children, as well as a number of men sitting, some crying, around dozens of bodies wrapped in blankets and lying on the ground next to the destroyed building.

Washington in the Mix

In Washington, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller stated yesterday that the United States is concerned about the number of casualties from the Israeli airstrike on a residential building in northern Gaza.

Miller described the airstrike as a “horrific incident with horrific consequences.”

The American spokesman noted that his country “has contacted the Israeli government to ask what happened.”

He did not reveal any immediate actions against Israel, which relies on American military and diplomatic support, but reiterated the U.S. call to end the war in Gaza through negotiations.

He stated that “the tragic cost borne by civilians” in the recent strike on Beit Lahia is “yet another reminder of why we need to end this war.”

Israeli Investigation

On the other hand, the spokesperson for the civil defense in Gaza, Mahmoud Bessal, indicated that the death toll from the bombing of the Abou Nasr family house in Beit Lahia has risen to 93, with about 40 people still missing under the rubble.

The Israeli army stated that it “was aware of reports regarding injured civilians (on Tuesday) in the Beit Lahia area and that the details of the incident are under investigation.”

Later, David Abraham, a spokesperson for the Israeli army, told CNN that the army “was still trying to understand” why so many people were in the area at the time of the strike, adding that civilians had been asked to evacuate the area “for several weeks.”

Abraham clarified that Israeli forces were targeting a suspected fighter they had spotted in the area and had no intention of “causing the building to collapse,” adding that the army is investigating what happened.

UN Reaction

Jeremy Lawrence, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, confirmed that the international organization was “horrified” by the strike, which he described as “one of the deadliest attacks in Gaza in nearly three months.”

Circumstances of the Strike

Regarding the circumstances of the strike, Rabi al-Chendghli, a 30-year-old displaced person from Jabalia city to a school in Beit Lahia, stated: “The explosion happened at night and was close to our location. I thought it was an ordinary bombing. With the sunrise, we went out, and people began to recover bodies and scattered limbs and injured people from the rubble.”

He added: “Most of the victims are women and children, and people are trying to save the injured, but there are no hospitals or care.”

According to civil defense in Gaza, the targeted building, consisting of five floors, housed dozens of displaced persons from the Jabalia and Beit Lahia camps.

Widespread Attack

Since October 6, the Israeli army has been conducting a large-scale aerial and ground offensive in northern Gaza, focusing on the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun in an operation it describes as aimed at preventing Hamas militants from reorganizing and repositioning.

The military operation in northern Gaza has forced tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee, while civil defense has confirmed the deaths of hundreds of people.

The war erupted following the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which caused the deaths of about 1,200 people, according to AFP.

During the attack, 251 people were abducted, of whom 97 are still being held in Gaza, and the Israeli army claims that 34 of them have died.

The Israeli military retaliatory campaign in Gaza has resulted in the deaths of at least 43,061 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children.