At least 72 people have been killed in Israeli operations across Gaza in the past day, hospital officials in the besieged territory have said, although communication difficulties in the north of the strip mean the final toll could be much higher.
In the central town of Khan Younis, 38 people, including at least 13 children from the same family, were killed in airstrikes early on Friday, hospital records showed. Relatives cradled their bruised and broken bodies in the morgue of the nearby European hospital before they were buried, in some cases several children to a shroud.
Other survivors sifted through the rubble of the strike, which hit the Manara neighbourhood, for belongings such as clothes and documents. Saleh al-Farra, who lost his 17-year-old brother and 15-year-old sister in the attack, said he remembered the family tried to move into the middle of the building for safety before a direct hit collapsed the structure and he passed out.
“I started screaming until my brother and father came, and they started trying to get me out. I didn’t know anything about anyone,” he told the Associated Press.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it had killed Palestinian gunmen in air and ground strikes in the area.
Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, where Israel on 6 October launched a fierce new offensive that critics say is designed to force the remaining population to flee, internet and phone service blackouts mean it is unclear what happened in a reported Israeli airstrike overnight on a block of houses in the Jabaliya refugee camp.
In a statement on Friday, the UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, said he believed the “darkest moment” of the war was unfolding in northern Gaza, “where the Israeli military is effectively subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation”.
He said of the offensive: “Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day … We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”
In a video posted to social media late on Thursday, Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera journalist from Jabaliya, said a total of 150 people had been killed and wounded in a huge airstrike that flattened 11 buildings, although there has been almost no official account of the strike from health officials owing to Israeli ground forces and communications difficulties.
The civil defence service said on Thursday it had been forced to stop operating in the area due to Israeli targeting of its crews and vehicles, and Jabaliya camp is believed to be under a total siege by Israeli ground forces.
“There is no civil defence, no journalists, no coverage, and nothing but death and destruction … The wounded died without ambulances or hospitals. No one could hear or see them except God,” Sharif wrote.
A civil defence spokesperson, Mahmoud Bassal, also said the death toll was believed to be 150. There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
North Gaza’s three remaining hospitals are struggling to cope due to a near-total Israeli blockade on aid and medical equipment. On Friday, the Israeli military said it had raided Kamal Adwan hospital because of intelligence that Hamas was operating in the area.
It also said it had evacuated some patients and delivered fuel and supplies to the facility, although there were conflicting reports that the delivery had been made by the World Health Organization.
The hospital’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, said in a social media video on Thursday night that several patients had already died due to a lack of supplies and medicine such as antibiotics, and one doctor had been killed by shelling on his way to work on Wednesday.
About 200 patients are estimated to be at the facility, according to the WHO.
“We’re a few hours away from the death of all these people,” Abu Safiya said. “Until when will this continue? Instead of receiving aid, we receive tanks.”
On Friday, the WHO said that it had lost contact with staff at the hospital.
Türk called on world leaders to act on the situation in Gaza, stressing that all states were responsible under the Geneva conventions to ensure respect for international humanitarian law.
“For months, I have pleaded with all parties to the conflict, as well as all states … to act to stop the carnage and destruction, to ensure the prompt and unconditional release of all hostages, and to ensure international humanitarian and international human rights law are respected,” he said. “But still this goes on and on and on.”
International efforts at brokering a ceasefire in the year-long Israel-Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack are expected to resume next week, but observers say a short truce of 12 days is under discussion rather than a lasting ceasefire aimed at bringing the conflict to an end.