Deadly Israeli attack in Gaza amid anger over UN agency ban – Middle East and Africa

The United States, Israel’s key ally and supporter, described the attack, which killed many children, as “horrible”.

The bombing comes as Israel faces an international backlash after its parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA, the United Nations’ main aid agency that works with Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian rescuers and desperate family members gathered around the collapsed five-storey block in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.

A long-haired, charred corpse hung from an upstairs window, and corpses wrapped in blankets lined the street as stunned relatives tried to identify their loved ones.

“The number of martyrs in the massacre at the house of the Abu Nasr family in Beit Lahia has risen to 93 and approximately 40 people are still missing under the rubble,” Gaza civil defense agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP. he said.

The Israeli army said it was “reviewing reports” about the attack. It had previously reported that its forces had killed 40 Hamas fighters and lost four soldiers in Gaza.

‘Women and children’

“The explosion occurred at night and at first I thought it was shelling, but when I went out after sunrise I saw people pulling bodies, limbs and injured people out from under the rubble,” said Rabie al-Shandagly, 30.

“Most of the victims are women and children and people are trying to save the injured but there is no hospital or proper medical care,” he told AFP.

Washington expressed deep concern.

“This was a terrible incident with terrible consequences,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

“We reached out to the Israeli government to ask what happened here.”

The Israeli army has been carrying out a large-scale air and ground offensive in northern Gaza, especially around Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, since October 6, saying it aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the region for more than 12 months after the war began when Hamas militants launched a bloody cross-border attack on Israel on October 7 last year.

Israel’s retaliatory strike killed at least 43,061 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations has deemed reliable, triggering warnings of a humanitarian disaster.

International concerns increased after the Israeli parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Israel tightly controls all humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza, and UNRWA has provided essential aid, education and health services in the Palestinian territories and diaspora for over seventy years.

‘Devastating consequences’

“There is a deep connection between the terrorist organization (Hamas) and UNRWA, and Israel cannot stand this,” MP Yuli Edelstein said while presenting the proposal in parliament.

However, some of Israel’s Western allies, including the United States, expressed deep discomfort.

Miller reiterated his warning to Israel that Washington could stop military aid if humanitarian aid to Gaza does not improve.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that London was “seriously concerned” and the French foreign ministry was “very saddened” by the law.

Germany, a staunch defender of Israel’s security, warned that this would “effectively make UNRWA’s work in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem impossible.”

UN chief Antonio Guterres said the Israeli law could lead to “devastating consequences” if implemented.

In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seen by AFP, Guterres argued that under international law, an occupying power must implement mechanisms to assist people living in the occupied territory.

“If Israel is not in a position to meet such needs, it has an obligation to authorize and facilitate the activities of the United Nations,” Guterres wrote.

Israel’s neighbor Jordan, which also hosts UNRWA offices, condemned the ban as “a continuation of Israel’s frantic efforts to politically assassinate the UN agency.”

Netanyahu said on social media that Israel was “ready” to provide aid to Gaza “in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security.”

Hezbollah chooses its new leader

In the October 7 attack, Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage, including soldiers and civilians, and 97 of them are still in Gaza. The Israeli army says 34 of them died.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to AFP official Israeli figures.

In Lebanon, Israeli tanks entered the outskirts of the village of Khiam, state media reported; It was the deepest strike so far in the ground operation they launched against Hezbollah last month.

Late Tuesday, the health ministry said at least eight people were killed in an Israeli attack on Sarafand in southern Lebanon.

Six people were also reported dead in an earlier attack on Haret Saida, near the southern main city of Sidon.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced that it has chosen its vice president, Naim Qassem, to replace Hassan Nasrallah, who died in Israel’s attack on South Beirut last month.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant wrote in X that Kasim was a “temporary appointment” that would not last long. In a separate post, Hebrew added that “the countdown has begun.”

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian’s website stated that Qasim’s appointment “will strengthen the will of the resistance.”

Separately, UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, said its south Lebanon headquarters was hit by a rocket fired “probably by Hezbollah or an affiliate group”. Austria said eight of its soldiers were injured.

At least 1,750 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, when fighting escalated as Israel launched air and ground offensives against Hezbollah, which launched rocket attacks in support of Hamas, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.