|
Listen to this article here
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Israeli Defense Force on Monday confirmed it was responsible for an airstrike on a refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Multiple craters now dot the Jabalya refugee camp where displaced residents of Gaza were seeking shelter. Images from the camp show mounds of debris scattered among crumbled buildings.
The International IDF Spokesperson, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, told CNN the airstrikes were targeting a senior Hamas leader.
“We were focused on this commander,” Hecht said, “who killed many, many Israelis.”
“It’s a very complicated battle space,” he continued. “There could be infrastructure there. There could be tunnels there. We’re still looking into it and we’ll give you more data as the hour moves ahead.”
Wolf Blitzer, the CNN anchor conducting the interview, asked Hecht if the IDF bombed the area knowing there were innocent people in the refugee camp as well.
“This is the tragedy of war, Wolf,” Hecht said. “As we’ve been saying for days: move south.”
Eyewitness says airstrike on Gaza refugee camp ‘felt like the end of the world’
Mohammad Ibrahim, who witnessed the airstrike on the refugee camp, told CNN that seven or eight missiles fell on the camp “without any prior warning”.
“There were seven to eight huge holes in the ground… body parts all over the place,” Ibrahim said. “It felt like the end of the world.”
Mohammad Al Aswad, another eye witness, also described the carnage of the scene to CNN.
“Bodies were hanging on the rubble, many of them unrecognized,” Al Aswad said, describing the scene in the refugee camp as “horrific”.
“Some were bleeding and others were burnt.”
The strike comes amid an escalation in attacks by Israel on supposed Hamas targets in response to the October 7th terror attacks. Those attacks, carried out by Hamas terrorists, left nearly 1400 Israelis dead in a brutal massacre.
Roughly 200 Israelis still remain hostage in Gaza, according to intelligence officials.
Hamas, which controls government agencies in Gaza, claims that Israeli missile strikes have killed nearly 8,000 people so far.
Instances of hate crimes rise across the world as conflict grows more violent
In the aftermath of the attacks by Hamas and counter-attacks by Israel, instances of both antisemitism and Islamophobia have risen globally.
In Texas, a Muslim woman was stabbed to death in a park while sitting at a picnic table. Authorities are determining if anti-Muslim was the motive behind the attack.
In Russia, pro-Hamas rioters stormed an airport searching for Israeli passengers on a flight from Tel-Aviv. Reports indicate the mob was demanding to see the passports of individuals they believed to be Jewish Israelis.
Leaders across the world are condemning antisemitic and Islamophobic hatred as the situation in Gaza becomes increasingly violent.
Even prior to today’s attack on the refugee camp, many had maintained calls for a ceasefire in the region. Officials at the United Nations are also warning against the “dehumanization” of Gazans in the ongoing conflict.
Related Stories