An Israeli air strike ripped through a crowded marketplace in northern Gaza on Monday afternoon, killing dozens of people, according to a rescue worker and witnesses.
The strike transformed a central shopping and transportation district in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp into a scene of unrecognisable devastation. Videos shared on social media and distributed by Palestinian news agencies show bodies strewn amid the detritus of what moments earlier had been a busy market selling produce and other goods.
Broken concrete and twisted metal from the surrounding buildings filled the square, where people rushed through the rubble and clouds of smoke searching for survivors. As a fire burned on the edge of the square, a police officer, bloodied and covered in dust, sat off to its side.
“Is he dead? Is he dead?” a man was heard yelling in one video.
The strike came as part of Israel’s response to Saturday’s attack, when hundreds of Palestinian fighters swept across Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, killing civilians and soldiers in shooting sprees, and firing thousands of rockets toward the centre of the country. The fighters are believed to be holding 150 hostages, civilians and soldiers. More than 700 people have been killed in Israel and nearly 2,400 injured.
Amid widespread fear in Gaza about the Israeli response, many people fleeing other parts of the blockaded enclave had come to seek shelter in central Jabalia, where shops and homes surround the market area. Monday’s strike hit as vendors and customers packed the marketplace, stocking up on food and produce.
Sixty people died in the strike, according to a paramedic with the Red Crescent who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press. There was no immediate confirmation from the Gazan health ministry.
Israeli airstrikes began pounding the Gaza Strip on Saturday. Since then, at least 560 Palestinians have been killed, the Gazan health ministry said on Monday, and nearly 3,000 others wounded. The casualties included 78 children and 41 women, the ministry said, in some cases entire families.
It was not clear how many of the other casualties were fighters, whether involved in the attack on Israel, or from the Israeli airstrikes.
New York Times News Service
