Gaza’s civil defense says 26 people have been killed and 59 missing after the Israeli airstrike

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense said Sunday (Nov 17) that 26 people, including children, were killed and at least 59 people were missing after an Israeli airstrike hit a building in the northern Palestinian territory.

After the strike early Sunday, 26 bodies were recovered from the rubble of the five-storey residential building in Beit Lahia, “including children and women”, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

He added that at least 59 people were still trapped under the rubble.

AFP footage showed men covered in dust rushing to reach people under the rubble, while some bodies were taken away on a donkey-drawn cart.

Other AFP images showed the flattened building with broken concrete and twisted metal protruding from the ruins, while more bodies covered in blankets lay nearby.

Hamas, which controls the area, accused Israel of committing a “massacre” that it said is “a continuation of the genocidal war and revenge against unarmed civilians.”

Earlier on Sunday, Gaza’s civil defense said other Israeli attacks in the war-torn area killed at least 20 people, including four women and three children.

The Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza said on Sunday that the overall death toll had risen significantly 13 months of war had reached 43,846.

The majority of those killed were civilians, according to ministry figures, which the United Nations consider reliable.

The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.