Gaza City – At least 10 member of a Palestinian family – two women and eight children – have been killed by an Israeli air raid on their home in the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, following the fifth night of relentless bombardment of the besieged enclave.
In the early hours of Saturday, rescue workers were digging through the rubble of the Abu Hatab family home where more people are believed to be buried.
At least 15 people were also wounded in the air raid, including an infant named Omar.
Nabil Abu Al Reesh, a doctor treating survivors at al-Shifa Hospital, said responders are “still trying to recover more bodies and figure out who is who”.
“This is truly a massacre that cannot be described,” he told Al Jazeera.
A man who identified himself as a cousin of the owner of the house told Al Jazeera the attack happened “without any warning”.
“We ran outside; we saw the four-storey house get completely demolished. It was completely levelled,” he said.
He added the homeowner’s sister and children were visiting when the attack occurred.
“They were all killed,” he said. “All of them.”
Hamas responded to the latest attack on Shati refugee camp by firing a barrage of rockets towards the southern Israeli towns of Askhelon and Ashdod. No casualties were reported.
The Israeli bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 139 Palestinians, including 40 children, and wounded more than 920 since Monday when, following days of protests against the forced expulsion of Palestinian families from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah and subsequent Israeli crackdowns and raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Hamas began firing rockets at Israel.
The rockets, many of which have been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system, have killed at least eight people in Israel, including one child.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have killed at least 13 Palestinians protesting against continued Israeli occupation and the ongoing bombardment of Gaza, while violence between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Israeli Jews has persisted amid the escalation. (Aljazeera)