US condemns Israeli attack which killed 93 in Gaza

The United States has branded a deadly Israeli air strike which killed at least 93 people in northern Gaza as ‘horrifying’.

The White House responded with dismay after the devastating Israeli assault on the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

As rescuers today continued to find bodies after a five-storey residential building was hit, videos on social media showed charred remains being covered in blankets on the floor.

But the horrifying images appeared to have further strained relations between Washington and Jerusalem.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said President Joe Biden’s administration was “deeply concerned by the loss of civilian life in this incident. This was a horrifying incident with a horrifying result”.

He pointed to “reports of two dozen children killed” in the attack.

The “tragic cost to civilians” in the latest strike “is another reminder of why we need to see an end to this war”, Miller said.

The Israeli military said it was “aware of reports that civilians were harmed in the Beit Lahia area”. It added that the details of the incident were being looked into.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched a renewed and intense military campaign in northern Gaza during the past two weeks, particularly in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.

The director of the nearby Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia, Hussam Abu Safia, said that children were being treated at the hospital, which was now struggling to treat patients due to a lack of staff and medicines.

“There is nothing left in the Kamal Adwan Hospital except first aid materials after the army arrested our medical team and workers,” Abu Safia said.

The IDF raided the hospital last week, saying it was being used by Hamas fighters.

Israel claims its operations in northern Gaza are designed to prevent Hamas from regrouping and accuses them of embedding among the civilian population, which Hamas denies.

In a statement after Tuesday’s deadly strike, it claimed to have killed 40 “terrorists” in Jabalia, and in central Gaza it said it “eliminated many terrorists” over the past 24 hours including some who “attempted to plant explosives near the troops”.

But the United Nations has warned that the northern Gaza Strip is facing a deepening humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people living in desperate conditions.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said that “the Israeli military is subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation”.

But he also conceded that it was unacceptable that Palestinian armed groups were reportedly operating among civilians, including inside shelters for the displaced, and putting them in harm’s way.

Earlier this week, Israel‘s parliament voted through new legislation to ban the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, from operating in the country, sparking warnings the delivery of aid to Gaza could be severely impacted.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 42,924 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its figures.

Israel has also now expanded its campaign one Lebanon in a bid to also destroy the Iranian backed terror group Hezbollah.

And today, fresh Israeli airstrikes and tank advances were reported in southern Lebanon.