At least 17 dead in Israeli strike on single house in northern Gaza

A pre-dawn Israeli airstrike has killed at least 17 people and wounded others who were sheltering in a house in northern Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian medics said.

Dozens of people had been sheltering in the Alloush family home in Jabalia, an urban refugee camp, when a direct hit from an airstrike resulted in the “complete destruction” of the building, according to the Palestianian news agency Wafa.

Death tolls for the attack varied on Sunday, with local hospital officials telling the Associated Press the figure of 17 included nine women. Wafa reported a death toll of 32, inclduing 13 children. Officials from the Gaza health ministry have not issued a death toll.

The total number of wounded was not immediately clear but residents said the building was housing at least 30 people when it was hit.

Preliminary visuals on social media showed dozens of bodies, including of several children, wrapped in blankets and laid on the ground at a hospital. The Independent has not independently verified these videos.

The Israeli military has yet to comment on the strike, but it says it only targets militants, whom it accuses of hiding among civilians in homes and shelters. Israeli strikes often kill women and children.

Gaza’s Civil Emergency Service says its operations to provide relief to displaced families have been halted for the past 19 days by an ongoing Israeli raid on two towns and a refugee camp in northern Gaza that started on 5 October.

Israel sent its forces inside Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza enclave in what it described as an operation to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping there. It claims Israeli troops have killed hundreds of militants in the new offensive.

The strike on Sunday was similar to another Israeli airstrike on a house in the Sabra neighbourhood which killed a welfare ministry official, Wael Al-Khour, his wife and children, medics and relatives said.

War-torn Gaza is in the grip of an “extremely grave and rapidly deteriorating” humanitarian crisis and the worst conditions are in the north, according to an alert issued by four hunger experts.

There is a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in parts of northern Gaza, experts warned on Friday. The Famine Review Committee warned that “famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future.”

The experts said all actors in the war in Gaza must take immediate action “within days not weeks … to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation.”

Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in Gaza. They have also voiced concerns over severe shortages of food, fuel, and medical supplies in northern Gaza, and said there is a risk of famine there.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, aimed at eliminating the militant group Hamas, has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians since it began a year ago, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and has laid waste to the enclave.

The war began after a Hamas-led assault on 7 October 2023 against southern Israeli communities, in which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.