Israeli airstrike on Gaza ‘kills 76 members of same family’ | World News

An Israeli airstrike has killed 76 members of one extended family in Gaza, according to rescue officials.

Yesterday’s strike, which hit a building in Gaza City, was one of the deadliest since the war began 12 weeks ago, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the besieged enclave’s Civil Defense department.

He shared the names of some of those killed, including 16 heads of households from the al-Mughrabi family and said several victims were women and children.

Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran employee of the UN Development Program, his wife and their five children, were also among the dead, he said.

Achim Steiner, the head of the agency, said: ‘The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all.

‘The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target. This war must end.’

Israel declared war after Hamas militants went across the border on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages.

More than 20,000 Palestinians have since died in reprisal aerial and ground assaults, with more than 53,000 wounded, health officials in Gaza say.

Israel has vowed to continue fighting until Hamas is destroyed, their power removed in Gaza and all hostages freed.

It blames the high death toll on Hamas, claiming they hide in crowded residential areas and use tunnels under buildings such as hospitals.

The country has carried out thousands of airstrikes and often don’t comment on specific attacks or discuss the intended target.

Yesterday, the UN Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution that calls for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza.

The US won the removal of a tougher call for an ‘urgent suspension of hostilities’ between Israel and Hamas.

The resolution was the first on the war to make it through the council after the US vetoed two earlier ones calling for humanitarian pauses and a full cease-fire.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his longstanding call for a humanitarian cease-fire.

In a news conference, he said the way Israel is conducting its offensive creates ‘massive obstacles to the distribution of aid inside Gaza’.

More than half a million people in Gaza – a quarter of the population – are starving, according to a report form the UN and other agencies.

Shielded by the Biden administration, Israel has so far resisted international pressure to scale back.

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