Dozens reported killed in explosion in northern Gaza refugee camp

Dozens of people have been killed after a blast at the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, news agency AFP reported.

The agency was at the scene in Jabalia after an explosion in the crowded refugee camp. The agency said that footage from the scene showed at least 47 bodies recovered from the rubble.

Located north of Gaza City, the Jabalia camp is the largest of Gaza’s eight refugee camps with over 116,000 Palestinian refugees registered there by the UN as of July 2023. Refugees began settling in the camp after the 1948 war in the small but densely populated area, only covering 1.4 sq km. It is largely made up of residential buildings and has 26 schools in 16 school buildings, a food distribution centre, two health centres, a library and seven water wells.

Jabalia lies in area that Israel has declared an evacuation zone.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the blast at the refugee camp while Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has blamed an Israeli air strike for the blast, saying at least 50 people were killed.

“More than 50 martyrs and around 150 wounded and dozens under the rubble, in a heinous Israeli massacre that targeted a large area of homes in Jabalia camp in the northern (Gaza) Strip,” a ministry statement said.

Ragheb Aqal, a Jabalia resident, described the strikes as “an earthquake” which shook the entire refugee camp.

“I went and saw the destruction… homes buried under the rubble and body parts and martyrs and wounded in huge numbers,” he told AFP.

“There’s no exaggerating when they talk about hundreds of martyrs and wounded. People were still “transporting the remains of children, women and elderly”, he added.

Earlier, the health ministry in Gaza said 8,525 people since Israel launched its bombing campaign on October 7 while in Israel around 1,400 people have been killed.