GAZA, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- At least 93 Palestinians were killed and 40 others missing in an Israeli bombing of a residential building in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Tuesday.
The Israeli army shelled a five-story residential building belonging to the Abu Al-Nasr family, where over 200 civilians, including women and children, were present, the media office said in a press statement.
The statement added that the attack came in conjunction with Israel's plan to "bring down the health system in northern Gaza and destroy four hospitals there to render them nonfunctional."
The office also accused Israel of preventing access to treatments, medicines, and medical supplies in the north, calling on the international community to immediately bring in surgical medical teams, ambulances, and civil defense vehicles.
Local sources and eyewitnesses said Israeli warplanes had targeted the residential building with at least one missile, leading to its complete destruction.
Dozens of dead people were transported by donkey carts for burial amid the disruption of ambulance and civil defense services, eyewitnesses added.
Paramedics expected the number of victims to rise due to the large number of missing people under the rubble, indicating that the rescue teams were facing difficulty searching for the missing.
Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals with the Gaza-based health authorities, called on surgeons to return to Kamal Adwan Hospital, where dozens of wounded were in desperate need of treatments. The director warned that most of those wounded in northern Gaza may die due to a lack of medical capabilities.
Meanwhile, the Civil Defense in Gaza said in a press statement that it had received appeals for help to save the lives of the wounded.
It noted the Civil Defense system had been completely paralyzed by the ongoing Israeli targeting, the arrest of its cadres, and the displacement of others.
In a press statement following the attack in Beit Lahia, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, official spokesperson for the Palestinian presidency, attributed the ongoing Israeli violence against Palestinians to U.S. support, saying it provided Israel with the cover to continue its killings.
No comment has been made so far by the Israeli side.
Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others taken hostage.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza has risen to 43,061, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Tuesday. ■
