At least 87 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit several multi-story buildings overnight Saturday on Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, the enclave’s health ministry said.
The number killed includes 27 bodies retrieved so far and 60 people under the rubble. More than 40 people had been injured, including a number of very critical cases, the ministry said.
CNN cannot confirm the figures but they match numbers provided by Kamal Adwan hospital, where victims have been taken.
Graphic footage showed the bodies of several children among the dead, many with extensive injuries. Other video showed numerous body bags at the hospital amid grieving relatives. Overnight footage showed rescue workers combing through tonnes of rubble in the search for survivors and victims. Daylight images appear to show that two or three substantial apartment buildings were flattened by the strike.
One unidentified man at the scene said Sunday morning that there were displaced people in four homes that were destroyed. “We call on the international community to end the war,” he said. “We beg you, we are civilians with no connection to anyone. We demand that you stop the war.”
Another woman, crying amid the damage, said a woman had held her legs while she was under the rubble. “We were sitting and talking to each other when suddenly a large concrete block fell on us,” she said. “What remains? They have killed all the people.”
The woman said that Israel “directed people to go to Beit Lahia and bombed them there.”
The Israeli military has issued a number of evacuation orders for northern Gaza this month where it has renewed its ground offensive.
CNN has approached the Israeli military for fresh comment on the strike. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) earlier dismissed reports from the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza that 73 people had been killed as exaggerated, saying it operates in a “precise and targeted manner.”
Kamal Adwan Hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya told CNN earlier Sunday that a “large number” of people have been killed and injured and “transferred to the hospital amid a severe shortage of medical staff and supplies,” and that many of the injured are “facing the risk of death due to the inability to treat them.”
The hospital’s director also said the area around the hospital is coming under “bombardment and direct gunfire.”
Dr. Maher Shamiya from the hospital told CNN that staff were “working under pressure, under fear, under destruction, and under injuries.”
The United Nations’ Special Coordinator for the Peace Process in the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, in a statement expressed horror at the airstrike, saying that “the nightmare in Gaza is intensifying.”
“Horrifying scenes are unfolding in the northern Strip amidst conflict, relentless Israeli strikes and an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis,” Wennesland said, adding that “civilians must be protected wherever they are.”
The airstrike comes as the Israeli military ramps up its operations again in northern Gaza, saying Hamas was regrouping in the area, and as Israel presses on with its war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The military said it targeted the Hezbollah intelligence headquarters early on Sunday.
Israel’s war on both fronts has shown no signs of abating despite the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Thursday after a year-long pursuit.
Sinwar’s death is the latest blow to the Palestinian militant group in Gaza, where the enclave’s health ministry says more than 42,000 people have been killed since October 7. But Western officials have said that the pivotal moment could be used to cement a ceasefire and bring back hostages still trapped in the besieged territory.
This story has been updated.
CNN’s Niamh Kennedy, Hamdi Alkhshali and Nadeen Ebrahim contributed reporting.