Death toll of Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on northern Gaza rises to 65: sources

GAZA - At least 65 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others wounded in an Israeli attack on a residential building in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, Palestinian medical sources and local eyewitnesses said Tuesday.

"So far, at least 65 Palestinians were killed, and dozens of others were wounded by the Israelis at a building housing about 150 people," Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals with the Gaza-based health authorities, told Xinhua.

Local eyewitnesses said that the Israeli army attacked a five-floor residential building in Beit Lahia and destroyed it completely.

Due to the lack of medical and civil defense teams in northern Gaza, residents were forced to manually pull out casualties from the debris, according to eyewitnesses.

"The Israeli army ordered us to evacuate northern Gaza to commit more and more massacres against the families trapped in their houses without having any services," Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza, told Xinhua.

The Israeli army has yet to comment on this incident.

This attack is part of a larger Israeli offensive against Hamas following an assault on the southern Israeli border on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 others taken hostage.

The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza has risen to 43,020, according to health authorities in Gaza.