Dozens of people were killed Tuesday in the Israeli bombing of Gaza's largest refugee camp, the Hamas-run health ministry said, with Israel's army confirming it had targeted a Hamas commander involved in the October 7 attacks.
Wails filled the dusty air as volunteers clawed through the concrete blocks and twisted metal at the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza in a desperate search for bodies and survivors, with AFP video footage showing at least 47 corpses being recovered.
Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, had no immediate comment on the claim, but quickly vowed to turn Gaza into a "graveyard" for Israeli troops.
Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry gave an initial toll of more than 50 dead and 150 wounded, but said dozens more were likely buried under the rubble, denouncing what it called "a heinous Israeli massacre" at the camp.
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Egypt lashed out at Israel's "inhumane targeting of a residential block". Sources said Cairo would open the Rafah crossing to treat wounded Palestinians in what would be the first time it has agreed to open the border to civilians since the conflict broke out.
Qatar, a key mediator in the crisis, condemned the Israeli attack on Jabalia and warned that expanded strikes on the besieged Palestinian enclave would "undermine mediation and de-escalation efforts".
The strike came after a day of fierce battles between Israeli ground troops and militants in northern Gaza as Israel pressed its mission to "crush" Hamas after its militants went on a rampage killing 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials, in the worst attack in the country's history.
Since then, Israel has hit back with an unstinting aerial bombardment, which the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza says has now killed more than 8,500 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children.
- 'An organiser of October 7 attacks' -
At Jabalia camp, hundreds of people could be seen swarming over several large craters punched into the ground, frantically searching through the rubble for survivors as night fell.
"A short while ago, IDF warplanes... assassinated Ibrahim Biari, commander of the Jabalia brigade of the Hamas terrorist organisation, who was one of those who directed the murderous terrorist attack on October 7," an army statement said.
"After the attack, Hamas' underground military infrastructure beneath these buildings collapsed," it added, saying the strike had killed "many Hamas terrorists".
Camp resident Ragheb Aqal, 41, likened the explosion to "an earthquake" and spoke of his horror at seeing "homes buried under the rubble and body parts and martyrs and wounded in huge numbers".
Jabalia is home to 116,000 people in an area covering 1.4 square kilometres (little more than half a square mile) -- about the size of London's Hyde Park.
Earlier, Israel said two of its soldiers had been killed in operations inside Gaza.
The carnage came as international leaders raised the alarm over the spiralling bloodshed and mounting humanitarian crisis in Gaza where several hours before the strikes, the health ministry gave a toll of 8,525 dead, among them 3,542 children and 2,187 women.
Despite the soaring death toll, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had dismissed any chance of a ceasefire late Monday, saying such appeals were "a call for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism".
"This will not happen."
Gaza City resident Ahmed al-Kahlout voiced something of the desperation felt by so many inside the war-torn coastal territory.
"We want to live like any other people in this world, to live quietly," he said.
"We don't know what to do. The least they can do is give us a truce, give us three hours, a temporary truce or a ceasefire."
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