Deadly Israeli strike targeted ‘surveillance’ on Beit Lahiya rooftop, official says

An Israeli military official told the BBC that on Tuesday they carried out a deadly strike on a five-storey apartment building in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, in response to what they saw as a “spotter” on the roof with binoculars watching Israeli forces.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said more than 90 Palestinians, including 25 children, were killed or missing under the rubble of a building that collapsed in the strike.

A military official said it was not a planned strike and troops were unaware the building was being used as a shelter for displaced persons.

They also said there were discrepancies between the number of casualties reported and those observed by the military.

The strike provoked a a strong response from Israel’s closest ally, the United Stateswhich described it as a “terrible incident with dire consequences” and demanded an explanation.

On Wednesday, after a military official spoke to reporters, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Israel was “not doing enough to get the answers we’ve been asking for.”

“They told us what they said publicly, which is that they are investigating the matter,” he added.

Israel does not allow the BBC and other international media in Gaza to do independent reporting, which makes it difficult to verify the facts on the ground, so we rely on information from video footage and eyewitness accounts.

A video posted on social media hours after the impact showed several bodies wrapped in blankets and people collecting body parts at the impact site.

Umm Malik Abu Nasr later told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today program on Tuesday that the strike destroyed her family’s home and that she was among the survivors pulled from the rubble.

“At about 00:30 or 01:00, the house of the Avda family, which was next to us, was bombed,” she said. “We rushed to help and welcome them, but their daughter (died) in our home.”

“At 04:00 a.m., the multi-story building of the Abu Nasr family collapsed on us. They (Israeli forces) bombed a house that housed about 300 displaced people who had fled their homes. These people sought shelter in our homes. We accepted them because they were just civilians and had nothing to do with the resistance (Palestinian armed groups).”

“My husband and other young people are still under the rubble and have not been pulled out yet,” she added. “My husband’s cousin and her five children are still under the rubble.”

The director of the nearby hospital, Kamal Advan, which has only two doctors and limited medical staff since the Israeli raid last week, said in voice message recorded Tuesday that it received the bodies of more than 25 people killed in the impact, and that another 77 were trapped under the rubble.

About 45 wounded, including children and women, were also taken to the hospital in horse-drawn carts or by people carrying them, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya added.

UN Middle East Peace Envoy Thor Vennesland said it was the latest in a “deadly series of recent mass casualty incidents, alongside a campaign of mass displacement, in northern Gaza that raises serious concerns about violations of humanitarian law”.

Hundreds of people were reportedly killed after the Israeli military launched a ground offensive on October 6 in Beit Lahia, as well as in nearby Jabalia and Beit Hanoun, saying they were acting against a regrouping of Hamas fighters.

More than 70,000 residents have fled to Gaza City, but the UN estimates that around 100,000 remain in dire conditions, suffering severe shortages of food, water and medicine.

The offensive also forced the closure of essential services, including medical facilities, fire services, search and rescue services, wells and bakeries.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people and took another 251 hostages.

More than 43,160 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory.