Gaza, July 29 (UNI) At least 30 Palestinians were killed Tuesday in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting residential homes in al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, said a local hospital.
The victims, mostly women and children, were killed in a heavy aerial bombardment in the “New Camp” area north of Nuseirat, one of the most densely populated zones in central Gaza, said Al-Awda Hospital in the refugee camp.
“The majority of the victims arrived in pieces due to the severity of the explosions,” the hospital said in a press statement, adding that the casualties followed several strikes that began in the early hours of the morning and targeted multiple civilian homes.
The hospital noted that it had reached full capacity, with medical teams operating “under enormous pressure.” Some patients had suffered critical injuries, but a shortage of medicine and medical supplies was hindering treatment, it said.
Local residents told Xinhua that eight members of a single family were killed when their home was struck without prior warning. The building was completely destroyed while the family was inside, they said.
Due to the destruction and shortage of emergency services, local residents were forced to use donkey carts to transport the dead and wounded. “It was a tragic and shocking scene,” Mohammed al-Hour, a local Palestinian man, told Xinhua.
He said that the area was subjected to “relentless shelling for over an hour,” blocking evacuation and aid efforts. “Ambulances arrived very late. We had to carry people using whatever means we could find,” he added.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces carried out a limited ground attack near the al-Mughraqa area and Wadi Bridge, northeast of Nuseirat, targeting agricultural lands and the outskirts of residential neighbourhoods with tanks and heavy artillery fire, local residents told Xinhua.
“We suddenly saw tanks advancing while warplanes bombed nearby houses. We had no choice but to flee,” Ahmed Saidam, a displaced resident, told Xinhua. “We felt trapped from every direction. The strikes also caused extensive damage to homes and infrastructure in the area,” he said.
Civil defence teams said in a press statement that they are still attempting to reach the bombed locations to search for survivors and retrieve bodies, but their efforts were hampered by continued shelling and a severe lack of equipment.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on these incidents.
The escalation in Nuseirat comes amid a worsening humanitarian situation across the Gaza Strip, where residents have been facing severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine since Israel launched large-scale operations in October 2023.
