Gaza Conflict: Airstrike kills 50 at refugee camp as Israel assaults Hamas

While a hospital director reported that over 50 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp in the besieged enclave, Israel said that its forces engaged Hamas gunmen inside the terrorist group’s extensive tunnel network beneath Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls from around the world for an end to the fighting as the conflict inside the small area of Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas grew more intense.

However, U.N. and other humanitarian officials issued a warning that Gaza’s civilian population was facing a public health emergency, with hospitals straining to treat the increasing number of casualties and running low on fuel, food, medicine, and drinking water.

More than fifty Palestinians were killed and 150 injured in Israeli airstrikes on a heavily populated area of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to the director of Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital, who spoke with Al Jazeera.

The Israeli military did not immediately provide a statement.

After three weeks of aerial bombardment, Israel is extending a four-day ground offensive into Gaza from the north, with the tunnels beneath the small enclave a key target. The move is intended to hit Hamas in retaliation for the Islamist group’s deadly surprise attack into southern Israel on October 7.

The tunnel complex is thought to be home to some of the 240 hostages that Israel claims Hamas took that day, which presents an additional challenge for the Israelis.

(With agency inputs)