195 Palestinians killed in two days of Israeli attacks on Gaza's Jabalia, says Hamas

Israeli attacks on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday resulted in the deaths of at least 195 Palestinians, according to the the Hamas-run government media office. According to Reuters, citing a statement from the office, at least 777 people were injured and about 120 people were still missing beneath the debris.

Israel said it had targeted and killed Hamas leaders in the camp.

The Jabalia camp in Gaza was struck for a second time in two days, with AFPTV images from Wednesday’s strike showing extensive damage and rescuers clawing through rubble to extract bloodied casualties. Rescuers said “whole families” had died. Israel’s military did not comment. UN chief Antonio Guterres was “appalled” by the “Israeli air strikes in residential areas of the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp”, a spokesman said, while the UN Human Rights Office said the attacks “could amount to war crimes”. Israel said Tuesday’s raid was a successful hit on top Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari, but the large death toll drew a chorus of international condemnation as far afield as Bolivia, which severed diplomatic ties in protest. Jordan recalled its ambassador to Israel “to condemn the Israeli war that is killing innocent people in Gaza”. Hamas said seven of the 240 hostages it is holding, including three foreign passport holders, died in Tuesday’s bombing, a claim impossible to verify. The group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh accused Israel of committing “barbaric massacres against unarmed civilians”, saying it was covering its own “defeats”. Israel has relentlessly pounded Gaza in retribution for the worst attack in its history, when Hamas gunmen stormed across the border, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials. Its bombing campaign has killed 8,796 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel said 16 soldiers died in fighting since Tuesday in and near Gaza, bringing to at least 331 the number killed since the October 7 attacks, most of them in Hamas’s initial cross-border rampage. With inputs from agencies