At least 47 people were killed on Tuesday during an attack on Gaza’s largest refugee camp. A Hamas commander who was apparently involved in the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel last month (and dozens of civilians) is among the deaths.
A large explosion ripped through the densely populated Jabalia camp late on Tuesday afternoon.
The Israeli army says its fighter jets hit a “large” tunnel complex at the refugee camp and killed “many Hamas terrorists”, including the local battalion commander, Ibrahim Biari, in the process.
Jonathan Conricus, spokesman for the Israeli army, says Biari was “crucial in the planning and execution” of Hamas’s attack on Israel that claimed the lives of 1,400 people, most of whom were civilians, on October 7.
However, Israel is condemned for its retaliatory attack on the refugee camp.
Bolivia has already severed all diplomatic ties with Israel as a “rejection and condemnation” of the attack.
Gaza’s health department, which is run by Hamas, for its part condemned the incident as “a horrific Israeli massacre” and said the death toll would most likely rise.
The department claims that Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has claimed the lives of more than 8,500 people. They claim two-thirds were women and children.
Saudi Arabia also condemned Israel’s “inhumane targeting” of the Jabalia refugee camp.
The Israeli army said on Wednesday that its forces had carried out attacks on more than 11,000 militant targets in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between it and Hamas.
According to Israel, two of its soldiers were killed this week when troops engaged in “heavy fighting” with Hamas militants “deep inside the Gaza Strip”.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, has vowed to turn Gaza into a “cemetery” for invading forces.
The Palestinian Telecommunications Agency said on Wednesday that telephone and internet services in Gaza are currently “completely cut”. This is the second power cut within a week.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejected international calls for a humanitarian ceasefire.
He says a ceasefire will amount to “a call for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism”.
“It will not happen,” says Netanyahu.
