At least 29 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a multi-storey residential building in the east of Gaza City, a local hospital says.
The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said warplanes targeted the area near al-Hawashi mosque in the Shejaiya neighbourhood on Tuesday morning.
It said eight children were among the dead, more than 60 people were injured, and that rescuers were still searching for two dozen others under the rubble.
The Israeli military said it had struck a “senior Hamas terrorist” who was responsible for planning and executing attacks in the area.
Numerous steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of “precision weapons”, it added.
The military also accused Hamas of violating international law by deliberately using the civilian population as human shields.
Video from Shejaiya showed the dust-covered bodies of small children being carried away from the rubble by distraught relatives and rescue workers.
Ayub Salim, 26, told AFP news agency that the area around the residential building struck on Tuesday morning was “overcrowded with tents, displaced people and homes”.
He said it was hit by “multiple missiles” and that “shrapnel flew in all directions”.
“Dust and massive destruction filled the entire place, we couldn’t see anything, just the screams and panic of the people,” he added. “It is truly a horrific massacre.”
Hamas also said the Israeli military had “committed a bloody massacre”.
Thousands of Shejaiya residents fled last week after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of the neighbourhood, saying it was operating with force to destroy “terrorist infrastructure”.
Credit: bbc.com
