Israeli Airstrikes Hit Gaza's Market and Mosques, Resulting in Dozens of Deaths

According to witnesses and authorities in Gaza, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza on Monday destroyed mosques over the heads of worshipers, destroyed a busy market place full of customers, and killed entire families.

Several dozen people were killed and the Jabaliya refugee camp's market was reduced to ruins by five Israeli airstrikes, according to the authorities. Other attacks reportedly killed worshippers inside four mosques in the Shati refugee camp. Boys were reportedly playing soccer outside one of the mosques when it was struck, according to witnesses.

Israel launched the attacks in retaliation for the attack on Saturday, when hundreds of Palestinian terrorists crossed Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, killing soldiers and civilians in shooting sprees and firing thousands of rockets into Israel's capital. 150 servicemen and civilians are reportedly being held prisoner by the combatants. Israeli authorities estimate that 900 Israelis died and more than 2,600 were wounded.

Israel claims that its attacks are directed at the operational hubs of Hamas, the armed Palestinian organization in charge of Gaza. It acknowledged attacking the mosques and claimed to be aiming at Hamas fighters or equipment inside the structures.

Israel has additionally claimed that it warned civilians to flee prior to strikes. Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, advised Gazans to avoid any potential Hamas targets on Saturday night. Additionally, warnings were given before bombings on Saturday and Sunday in Gaza struck and destroyed four tower buildings.

The majority of the strikes, according to Gazans, have been indiscriminate and without prior notice. Additionally, Gazans claim they have nowhere to go because Israel and Egypt have been enforcing a 16-year land, air, and sea embargo on the enclave, which restricts what can enter it and keeps most Palestinians from leaving and leaves no bomb shelters or other means of escape.

Haneen Mousa, who lives close to one of the targeted mosques, stated, "The strikes started suddenly without warning." "They targeted the mosque next to us, and the cement blocks, the metal, and the walls all fell on us."

An Israeli military spokesperson during a news briefing on Monday morning declined to comment on whether the military no longer issues warnings before launching attacks on houses and apartment complexes.

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht of the Israel Defense Forces declared, "We are at war." "There's been a paradigm shift," he continued. We'll exert every effort. The scale is different today since this is a war.

According to the Gazan Health Ministry, at least 687 Palestinians have died and close to 3,000 more have been injured since Israel started its attacks on Saturday. According to the government, the casualties included 140 children and 105 women, in some cases entire families. It was unclear how many of the victims were combatants who took part in the assault on Israel.

According to Raji Sourani, a lawyer with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, "the Israelis have lost their minds," and "They are annihilating entire families."

According to the United Nations and Palestinian officials, at least two hospitals and numerous homes were also damaged. According to the health ministry, an Israeli airstrike in the region forced the closure of a hospital in northern Gaza.

Israeli attacks, according to the health ministry in Gaza, "directly and systematically" target ambulances; since Saturday, at least nine have been hit.

According to the U.N. humanitarian organization, over 400,000 people in Gaza are affected by the damaged water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities caused by Israeli attacks. According to the United Nations, two schools managed by the organization that aids Palestinian refugees have been impacted by strikes.

The more than two million Palestinians who reside in Gaza have seen their living circumstances, healthcare system, and infrastructure deteriorate, and there is now a roughly 50% unemployment rate.

Israel's defense minister declared a "complete siege" of Gaza on Monday and stated that "no electricity, no food, no water, and no fuel" would be permitted to enter. After an Israeli strike on the Palestine Telecommunications Company headquarters in the heart of the city on Monday, phone and internet service was cut off in numerous areas of Gaza.

In central Jabaliya, in the northern section of the strip, where stores and homes surround the market area, many individuals fleeing other parts of the blockaded enclave had come to seek shelter amid widespread concern in Gaza over the Israeli response. As shoppers and vendors crowded the market to stock up on food and produce on Monday, the strike began.

Videos posted on social media and published by Palestinian news organizations depict victims scattered among the debris of what was once a bustling market selling products like fruit.

According to a paramedic with the Red Crescent who was unable to speak to the media and who asked to remain anonymous, sixty individuals passed away. The Gazan Health Ministry did not immediately confirm anything.

People hurried through the debris and smoke looking for survivors as broken concrete and twisted metal from the nearby buildings flooded the square. A policeman was sitting off to the side of the square as a fire raged, covered in dust and covered in blood.

Is he deceased? Is he deceased? In one video, a man can be heard screaming.

The mosque next door was hit by a bomb, and Ms. Mousa, her seven children, and her husband fled their home as the debris rained.

Walls and the roof started to collapse. According to Ms. Mousa, a young girl who lived next door was killed, and locals had to struggle to get her body out from under the debris.

If there had been a warning, Ms. Mousa added, "we would have left earlier; instead, all of a sudden, three floors fell on top of us."

Neighbors were searching amid the debris of the massive Al-Sousi mosque on Monday afternoon; it was hard to tell it had once been a place of worship. Next door to the Gharbia mosque lived 47-year-old Abu Uday, a father of nine children.

"No warnings, no nothing — before we knew it, the rockets hit," he remarked. "The rocks fell on us and the glass all shattered on us."

Approximately two blocks from her home and close to the Al-Sousi mosque, Sumaya Ghabin, 30, was startled awake at 6 a.m. by the boom of an Israeli strike hitting the Gharbia mosque.

We woke up to find the house covered in dust and fragments, she claimed. She continued, saying that her 10-year-old daughter was screaming and hiding under the covers because the windows had been blasted out. It appears that they will target all the mosques.