At least 30 people have been killed by Israeli strikes throughout the day in northern Gaza’s Jabalia town and refugee camp, Gaza’s civil defence agency has said, a week after Israel launched an offensive there which it claims is aimed at stopping Hamas regrouping.
The agency’s spokesperson, Mahmud Bassal, said a strike that occurred before 9.40pm local time killed 12 people including women and children, while 14 were missing and likely trapped under the rubble.
Before that incident, Ahmad al-Kahlut – director of the agency in northern Gaza – said 18 people had been killed by several strikes, including hits on eight schools in the camp that were serving as shelters for displaced people.
In total, the day’s strikes left at least 110 injured, according to figures provided by Bassal and Kahlut. The Israeli military did not respond to questions posed by the news agency AFP about the strikes on schools in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s historic refugee camps.
Medics told Reuters that at least 61 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip on Friday.
The Israeli military claims it has killed dozens of militants in Jabalia, without providing any evidence. Photos published from the area by news wires have shown many children among the dead. It is not possible to independently verify death tolls from the camp as Israel does not allow foreign journalists in.
The charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), meanwhile, said thousands of people remained trapped in the camp while one staff member said people trying to leave – Israel has issued widespread evacuation orders for northern Gaza – are being shot.
“Nobody is allowed to get in or out; anyone who tries is getting shot,” MSF project coordinator Sarah Vuylsteke said on X. Five MSF staff were trapped in Jabalia, she said.
“I don’t know what to do; at any moment we could die. People are starving. I am afraid to stay, and I am also afraid to leave,” she quoted Haydar, an MSF driver, as saying.
At least 15 of the fatalities in Jabalia since dawn on Friday were due to Israeli strikes targeting various areas, including a school sheltering displaced individuals, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said, citing medical sources.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said dozens were wounded by Israeli quadcopter drone fire at the same school.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has previously claimed Gaza’s militants use such shelters for cover. Hamas has denied this.
The Israeli military has sent troops into the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as Jabalia. Hamas has said it will keep fighting Israeli forces.
Palestinian health officials have reported at least 130 deaths in the operation so far, while the military has told residents to evacuate areas where the UN estimates more than 400,000 people are trapped. Rescue workers have reportedly struggled to reach bodies and injured people due to Israeli fire.
Journalists have also been killed and wounded in the renewed Israeli offensive in northern Gaza, which has also targeted hospitals, with the broadcaster Al Jazeera this week again accusing Israel of deliberately targeting them after two of its journalists were critically injured. Israel denies deliberately targeting journalists.
Al Jazeera reporter Anas Al-Sharif on Friday said in a post on X that the health of his colleague Fadi Al Wahidi, who was shot in the neck by an Israeli sniper and paralysed on Wednesday, was deteriorating and called for assistance in evacuating him from the territory.
Anas, please, I just want to see my body.
— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) October 11, 2024
Anas, please, I want to stand and walk.
Anas, where are you? I can’t even move my neck. I just want to see you all!
None of us had the heart to tell him that he would never move again after being shot by an occupying sniper.
In an… pic.twitter.com/yTMHMh3qSN
Posting footage from the aftermath of the Israeli attacks on Jabalia on X, he added: “Without exaggeration, these are the most difficult days of the Israeli war on Gaza.”
UN officials have expressed concern that the ongoing Israeli offensive and evacuation orders in northern Gaza could disrupt the second phase of its polio vaccination campaign set to begin next week.
Healthcare officials have reported that dozens of facilities in Gaza are under evacuation orders from the Israeli military, complicating humanitarian efforts amid the conflict.
Aid groups carried out an initial round of vaccinations last month after a baby was partially paralysed by the type 2 polio virus in August, in the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
