 | | Palestinians searching for casualties today after an explosion at the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza.Reuters |
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Israel hits a densely populated neighborhood in Gaza |
An Israeli strike aimed at Hamas militants hit the densely populated Jabaliya neighborhood of Gaza today, leaving a large crater and causing widespread damage. |
The Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said the Israeli strikes killed and wounded "hundreds" of people in Jabaliya, a statement that could not be immediately verified. A doctor at a nearby hospital said the facility was receiving hundreds of injured and that dozens were dead. |
The Israeli military said its strike had killed Hamas militants, including Ibrahim Biari, a commander who it said had helped plan the attacks in Israel on Oct. 7. It also said that "underground terror infrastructure" beneath the buildings had collapsed following the strike. |
Photographs showed shattered apartment blocks and piles of rubble around at least one large crater in the neighborhood. A later photograph, published by Reuters, showed white sheets wrapped around what appeared to be more than 30 bodies laid on the ground. |
 | | Residents searching for survivors and recovering bodies today in the Jabaliya neighborhood of Gaza.Abad Sabah/Reuters |
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Jabaliya, north of Gaza City, is home to the largest of the Gaza Strip's eight refugee camps. The camp is populated with people who were displaced in the 1940s from what is now Israel, and their descendants. |
Earlier this year, there were more than 116,000 people registered with the U.N. at the camp, though it was unclear how many had left in recent weeks. |
Israel has conducted thousands of bombings in Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attacks. More than 8,500 people have been killed, including more than 3,500 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. |
Israeli ground troops and tanks continued pushing deeper into the Gaza Strip today, edging closer to Gaza City, local authorities said. Humanitarian officials warned that two million Palestinian civilians in Gaza faced a growing catastrophe. |
— Reporting by Hiba Yazbek, Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Aaron Boxerman |
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