A child walks among the rubble of buildings in Rafah, Gaza after strikes on December 21 (Picture: Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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.
Injured Palestinian children are taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for treatment on December 23 (Picture: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)
An Israeli attack on the Er-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on December 21 (Picture Israel Defense Forces (IDF)/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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.
Palestinians walk past a damaged road in Gaza on December 22 after Israeli forces tell them to leave Bureij Refugee Camp (Picture: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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.
A picture taken from southern Israel bordering the Gaza Strip on December 22 (Picture: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
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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It’s one of the deadliest Israeli strikes since the start of the war, they said.