The airstrike is said to have killed dozens of people in Jabalia.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 33 people, including 21 women, in a refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, authorities in the Hamas-run Strip said.

There was no immediate comment on the alleged attack on Jabalia by Israel, whose forces have laid siege to the densely populated camp for weeks.

he The leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, was assassinated this week He raised hopes in some quarters about the end of the war, but the deputy leader of the movement said that Hamas would only strengthen its power.

US President Joe Biden said there is an opportunity to “work on a truce” in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah militants, but that it will be “more difficult in Gaza “.

He did so when he left the German capital, Berlin, where he met with German, French and British leaders.

According to a statement sent by the media office of the government run by Hamas in Gaza, the airstrike on Friday injured more than 85 people, some of them in a serious condition, as homes of three families in the camp were hit.

He said the final death toll could reach 50 people, as people were buried under the rubble of buildings.

The report could not be independently verified. Local sources indicate that northern Gaza is effectively isolated, with communications and internet services cut off in the region.

A video circulating on social media (the BBC could not confirm its accuracy) shows bodies wrapped in white linen placed in the courtyard of Al Awda hospital.

The director of the hospital spoke to reporters about the large number of victims.

The director said: “Ambulance teams are still trying to retrieve the martyrs and the injured from Jabalia.

“The hospital wards are completely full and many wounded are being treated on the ground.”

According to the Reuters news agency, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said at least 39 Palestinians, many of them in Jabalia, were killed in Israeli strikes on Friday before the latest attack.

Around 400,000 people were trapped inside the camp with very little food and water for more than two weeks.

The head of the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Aid, Georgios Petropoulos, told the BBC’s Newshour program that families in Jabalia were suffering “a terrible situation”.

Speaking from Rafah in southern Gaza, he said: “We cannot raise the alarm loud enough about how serious and dangerous the situation is for civilians there.”

Israel said it sent about 30 truckloads of food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment to northern Gaza on Friday, but local health officials told Reuters the aid was not in the worst-hit areas. which is affected by the likes of reaching Jabalia.

Israel has repeatedly denied that it is blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, but the United States has called on it to improve access or risk some aid going cut off the US military.

Israeli Minister Amichai Shikli told the BBC that Israel had “besieged” parts of northern Gaza, including Jabalia.

“We allowed civilians to flee to the safe zone and stopped supplies from entering the siege zone,” he told the “Newshore” program.

He said this was “legal under international law.”

Hamas-led authorities say that since the Hamas-led attack on Israel just over a year ago, at least 42,500 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured in Gaza.

About 1,200 people were killed by Hamas and its allies in the attack on October 7, 2023, and another 251 were taken hostage in Gaza.

The deputy leader of Hamas, Khalil al-Hayya, said on Friday that the Israelis will not be returned until Israel ends the war and withdraws from Gaza.

Sinwar was held responsible for the October 7 attack. According to the Israeli military, he died in an exchange of fire​​​​ after the building he was hiding in in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was hit by “​​tank fire”.

The medical examiner in Israel who performed the autopsy told American media that he had been shot in the head.

Dr. Chen Kugel also found injuries to the right arm from “rocket fire,” damage to the left leg from “falling buildings,” and injuries from shrapnel.