No let-up in Israel's deadly campaign; 30 killed

Northern Gaza issues plea for help

CAIRO/GAZA:

Israel pummeled the Gaza Strip with new bombardments that killed at least 30 people on Wednesday, Palestinian medics said, a day after one of the deadliest single strikes of the year-old war killed scores in the north of the enclave.

Eight of Wednesday's victims were killed in a strike on the Salateen area of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. The area is near where medics said at least 93 people were killed or missing on Tuesday in an Israeli strike Washington called "horrifying".

The Israeli military assault that has laid waste to the Gaza Strip and killed tens of thousands of people shows no signs of slowing as Israel wages a new war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and its backer the United States tries after a year of failed attempts to broker ceasefires for both.

Northern Gaza, where Israel said in January it had dismantled Hamas' command structure, is currently the focus of the military's assault. It sent tanks into Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia earlier this month to flush out Hamas fighters who it said had regrouped in the area.

The new operation has killed hundreds of Palestinians. On Wednesday, the Gaza health ministry said at least 30 people were killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave, at least 23 of them in northern areas. Tuesday's strike on a house in Beit Lahiya killed 93, including 20 children, medical workers say.

An Israeli military official said that airstrike, which demolished a building, was not intended to destroy the structure and was aimed at a person on the roof whom troops had identified as a "spotter" amid heavy fighting.

The official, who could not be identified by name, said there were "discrepancies" between the numbers reported dead and what the military had observed but did not elaborate. Israel says its northern assault has killed hundreds fighters. Hamas has not said how many fighters have died.

Cries for help

The assault in the north, in addition to new rules introduced by Israel and a halt to most private food deliveries, has also choked aid and food supplies to their lowest level since the beginning of the war.

Israel says it has continued food deliveries into Gaza and blames the United Nations for failing to feed Gazans. Israeli statistics reviewed by Reuters on Wednesday show that aid shipments allowed into Gaza in October remained at their lowest levels since October 2023.

Officials in Beit Lahiya issued a statement urging world powers and aid agencies to halt Israel's attacks and bring in basic medical supplies, fuel and food, saying the latest military actions had left the area "without food, without water, without hospitals, without doctors."

Dr Eid Sabbah of Beit Lahiya's Kamal Adwan hospital told Reuters that bodies and injured people remained trapped under rubble.

"Whoever is injured, just lies there on the ground and whoever is killed can't be transported, except by mule-drawn cart," he said.