People walk past the damaged Gaza City headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in February 2024. Photo: AFP
An Israeli air strike on a single residential block killed nearly 100 people, Gaza's civil defence agency said, leaving rescuers scrambling through rubble for survivors as Israel pressed on with its offensives in Gaza and Lebanon.
The latest bombing came as Israel faced a chorus of international criticism after its parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA, the main United Nations aid agency working with Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian rescuers and desperate family members gathered round the demolished five-storey block in Beit Lahia in the north of Gaza.
A charred body with long hair hung out of an upper-storey window and corpses wrapped in blankets were lined up in the street below, as stunned relatives sought to identify the dead.
"The number of martyrs in the massacre of the Abu Nasr family home in Beit Lahia has risen to 93 martyrs, and about 40 are still missing under the rubble," Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The Israeli military said it was "looking into the reports" of the strike in Beit Lahia, having earlier reported that its ground and air forces had killed 40 Hamas fighters and lost four of its own soldiers in combat in Gaza.
'Women and children'
"The explosion happened at night and I first thought it was shelling, but when I went out after sunrise I saw people pulling bodies, limbs and the wounded from under the rubble," said Rabie al-Shandagly, 30, who had taken refuge in a nearby school in Beit Lahia.
"Most of the victims are women and children, and people are trying to save the injured, but there are no hospitals or proper medical care," he told AFP.
The Israeli military has been conducting a sweeping air and ground assault in northern Gaza since 6 October - particularly around Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun - in what it describes as an operation to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee the area, more than 12 months into the war sparked by Hamas militants launching a bloody cross-border assault into Israel on 7 October last year.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 43,061 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable, triggering warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.
International concerns mounted after the Israeli parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Lawmakers also passed a measure prohibiting Israeli officials from working with UNRWA and its employees.
Israel strictly controls all humanitarian aid shipments into Gaza, and UNRWA has provided essential aid, schooling and healthcare across the Palestinian territories and in the diaspora for more than seven decades.
'Devastating consequences'
"There is a deep connection between the terrorist organisation (Hamas) and UNRWA, and Israel cannot put up with it," lawmaker Yuli Edelstein said in parliament as he presented the proposal.
But several of Israel's Western allies voiced deep disquiet.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said London was "gravely concerned" and the French foreign ministry said it "very strongly regrets" the law, which it said could have a "catastrophic" effect on civilians.
Germany, which has been a staunch defender of Israel's security, warned it would "effectively make UNRWA's work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible... jeopardising vital humanitarian aid for millions of people".
UN chief Antonio Guterres said the Israeli law could have "devastating consequences" if implemented and "would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work".
The foreign ministry of Israel's neighbour Jordan, which also hosts UNRWA offices, condemned the ban as a "continuation of Israel's frantic efforts to assassinate the UN agency politically".
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media that Israel was "ready" to continue providing aid to Gaza "in a way that does not threaten Israel's security".
Hezbollah names new leader
During the 7 October attack, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, including soldiers and civilians, of whom 97 are still in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of these are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
In Lebanon, Israeli tanks rolled into the outskirts of the village of Khiam, their deepest incursion yet in the ground operation they launched against Hezbollah last month, state media reported.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, announced it has chosen deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as leader after his death in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.
Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah's executive council, was initially tipped to succeed Nasrallah, but he too was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs shortly after Nasrallah's assassination.
Israel wasted no time in threatening the new leader, with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant posting on X that Qassem was a "temporary appointment" who would not last for long. In a separate post in Hebrew, he added that the "countdown has begun".
Separately, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said its headquarters in southern Lebanon had been hit by a rocket fired "likely by Hezbollah or an affiliated group", leaving some troops with minor injuries. The Austrian defence minister said eight of its soldiers were hurt.
According to an AFP tally based on official figures, at least 1700 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, when the fighting escalated as Israel launched an air and ground offensive against Hezbollah, which had been carrying out rocket attacks in support of Hamas.
- AFP