Palestinians carried away the injured and dead on blankets and mattresses in the densely packed Jabalya refugee camp. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a senior Hamas commander, Ibrahim Biari, was killed in the strikes.
The blasts left a deep crater and crumbled buildings. Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense emergency services, said about 20 buildings were destroyed. The breakdown of dead and wounded was not immediately clear amid ongoing rescue efforts.
The attack reinforced fears that Israel’s expanded use of airstrikes and larger ground operations will put more civilians in the territory at greater risk and compound an already dire humanitarian crisis.
Aid convoys have kept up a limited delivery of needed supplies, but the deliveries are far short of the growing demands. Egypt has also been preparing hospitals to treat wounded Gazans, but a stalemate in border negotiations has prevented the wounded from crossing. But in a potential breakthrough, Hamas and Egypt said Tuesday that an agreement was reached to allow 81 injured people from Gaza to pass on Wednesday through the Rafah border, the only official route from Gaza not controlled by Israel.
Israel’s push deeper into Gaza has become a test for allies such as the United States, which has stood by Israel’s right to retaliate after a deadly Hamas raid on Oct. 7 but has increasingly pressed for ways to help civilians caught in the war. At a Senate hearing in Washington on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “humanitarian pauses must be considered.”….