Huge explosions ripped through Gaza’s largest refugee camp on Tuesday, leaving dozens dead, in strikes the Israeli army said killed a Hamas commander involved in the October 7 attacks.
Wails filled the dusty air as volunteers clawed through the concrete blocks and twisted metal at the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza in a desperate search for bodies and survivors, with AFP video footage showing at least 47 corpses being recovered.
Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, had no immediate comment on the claim, but quickly vowed to turn Gaza into a “graveyard” for Israeli troops.
Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry gave an initial toll of more than 50 dead and 150 wounded, but said dozens more were likely buried under the rubble, denouncing what it called “a heinous Israeli massacre” at the camp.
Egypt lashed out at Israel’s “inhumane targeting of a residential block”, and said it would open the Rafah border crossing to let in wounded Palestinians for medical treatment. It is the first time Cairo has agreed to open the crossing to civilians since the conflict broke out.
The strikes came after a day of fierce battles between Israeli ground troops and militants in northern Gaza as Israel pressed its mission to “crush” Hamas after its militants went on a rampage killing 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials, in the worst attack in the country’s history.
Since then, Israel has hit back with an unstinting aerial bombardment, which the Hamas-controlled health ministry says has now killed more than 8,500 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children.
As the violence raged, intensive diplomatic efforts to secure the release of more than 230 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, among them Israelis, foreigners, and dual-nationals, appeared to be making some headway, with the Al-Qassam Brigades saying it would free some of the foreigners “in the next few days”.
