Jerusalem — Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said a second Israeli bombing raid in two days had killed and wounded “dozens” Wednesday at the territory’s biggest refugee camp.
It said there were “dozens of martyrs and injured in a bombing by the occupation planes” at the Jabalia camp, a day after Israel acknowledged carrying out one devastating strike.
Images obtained by AFP showed dozens of rescuers pulling bodies and injured out of ruined buildings around another major hole left by Wednesday’s shelling.
Rescuers said “whole families” were killed, but casualty details could not be immediately confirmed. Israel’s military did not comment.
The Hamas health ministry says more than 50 people were killed in Tuesday’s attack.
‘Latest atrocity’
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths denounced the Jabalia strike after a two-day visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
“This is just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza where the fighting has entered an even more terrifying phase, with increasingly dreadful humanitarian consequences,” Griffiths said in a statement.
He said “the world seems unable, or unwilling, to act,” adding “this cannot go on. We need a step change.”
Griffiths said: “We need the warring parties to agree to pauses in the fighting” so that desperately needed relief aid can get into the Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people.
Israel said Tuesday’s strike killed a senior Hamas commander based in Jabalia, Ibrahim Biari, “who was one of those who directed the murderous terrorist attack on October 7.”
15 Israeli soldiers killed
Fifteen Israeli soldiers have been killed fighting in Gaza since Tuesday, a spokesman for the country’s military told AFP.
Israeli troops have been fighting Hamas militants on the ground since Friday, backed by heavy air strikes which have killed more than 8,700 Palestinians, including more than 6,000 women and children.
Israel says that 1,400 people, mainly civilians, were killed, and more than 240 people taken hostage in the Hamas attacks.
The Hamas military wing has said that seven of the hostages, including three with foreign passports, were killed in Tuesday’s air attack.
Jordan to recall ambassador to Israel
Jordan said it would “immediately” recall its ambassador to Israel in protest against the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza that has killed thousands of people.
“Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi decided to immediately recall Jordan’s ambassador to Israel,” the foreign ministry said in a statement that condemned “the ongoing Israeli war that is killing innocent people in Gaza and causing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”.
In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab state to make peace with Israel after Egypt in 1979. Its population includes more than two million Palestinian refugees.
The last time Jordan recalled its ambassador to Israel was 2019.
Israel committing massacres to cover its defeats: Hamas chief
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, on Wednesday accused Israel of committing “massacres” in the Gaza war to cover its own “defeats”.
Haniyeh, whose group launched the bloody October 7 attacks on Israel that sparked the Gaza war, accused Israel of “committing barbaric massacres against unarmed civilians”.
“Its villainy will not save them from resounding defeat,” he vowed in a speech broadcast by Al Jazeera.
Haniyeh said that ahead of the October 7 attacks, Hamas had warned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “and his fascist government will continue their contentious policies”.
Blinken due in Israel Friday
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks in Israel Friday then visit other regional powers as Washington seeks “urgent mechanisms” to reduce regional tensions over the Israel-Hamas war, the State Department said.
President Joe Biden and Jordan’s King Abdullah II spoke Tuesday and “discussed urgent mechanisms to stem violence, calm rhetoric and reduce regional tensions”, and also agreed it was “critical to ensure that Palestinians are not forcibly displaced outside of Gaza”, the White House said.