At least 15 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday following intensified Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency, as the Israeli military expanded its ground operations into the central city of Deir el-Balah.
Thirteen people were killed and over 50 others injured in an overnight airstrike on the Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, said Mahmud Bassal, a spokesperson for the civil defence agency. The crowded coastal camp, which now shelters thousands displaced from northern Gaza, was struck around 1:40 a.m. local time.
“I felt like I was in a nightmare. Fire, dust, smoke and body parts flying through the air,” said Raed Bakr, 30, who was living in a tent with his three children.
“The children were screaming.” Bakr’s wife was killed in an earlier strike last year.
Due to severe fuel shortages, private vehicles are largely unavailable, forcing residents to carry the wounded on foot.
“There were no vehicles or even donkey carts,” Bakr added.
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Another camp resident, Muhannad Thabet, 33, described the ordeal as “a night of terror” marked by relentless airstrikes. He rushed a six-year-old child to a nearby facility for treatment, only to find Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital overwhelmed by casualties.
The civil defence agency confirmed two more deaths in Deir el-Balah, where Israeli forces have widened ground operations. The military previously ordered the evacuation of large portions of the city.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that between 50,000 and 80,000 people currently reside in Deir el-Balah, including around 30,000 in displacement shelters. The city had previously been regarded as one of the safer zones in Gaza.
AFP footage from the area showed thick plumes of smoke rising over Deir el-Balah, accompanied by the sound of surveillance drones.
OCHA also reported that nearly 88 percent of the Gaza Strip is now either under evacuation orders or classified as militarised zones, pushing Gaza’s 2.4 million residents into increasingly crowded and unsafe areas as the humanitarian crisis deepens.