Israeli Airstrikes Kill More Than 100 People In One Of Deadliest Nights In Gaza War, Officials Say

Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra said many of those killed at Maghazi were women and children.

trikes that began hours before midnight persisted into Christmas Day on Monday. ( Image Source :Getty )

New Delhi: In one of the deadliest nights of Israel’s 11-week-old battle with Hamas, Israeli airstrikes killed around 100 people across Gaza, Palestinian health officials said.

More than 70 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting Maghazi in the center of the besieged strip, while an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed 23, bringing total Palestinian fatalities overnight to more than 100, reported Reuters.

Strikes that began hours before midnight persisted into Christmas Day on Monday. Residents and Palestinian media said Israel stepped up air and ground shelling against al-Bureij in central Gaza.

"The walls and the curtains fell on us," one man told Reuters. "I reached down to my four-year-old child but all I found were rocks."

Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra said many of those killed at Maghazi were women and children. Eight others were killed as Israeli planes and tanks carried out dozens of airstrikes on houses and roads in nearby al-Bureij and al-Nusseirat, health officials said.

As per the report, several residents made pleas on social media for people to shelter them as they have become homeless after leaving their homes in Bureij.

"I have 60 people in the house, people who arrived at my house believing that central Gaza area was safe. Now we are searching for a place to get to," Odeh, a resident of the refugee camps, told Reuters.

The Israeli army said it was reviewing the report of a Maghazi incident and was committed to minimising harm to civilians. Hamas denies the Israeli charge that it operates in densely populated areas or uses civilians as human shields.

Hamas and smaller militant ally Islamic Jihad are believed to be holding more than 100 hostages from among 240 they captured during their Oct. 7 rampage through Israeli towns, when they killed 1,200 people.

Since then, Israel has besieged the narrow Gaza Strip and laid much of it to waste. Nearly 20,700 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, including 250 in the last 24 hours, according to authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza on Monday.

Thousands more are believed to be dead under the rubble.