The bombing targeted the town of Beit Lahia, less than two miles from the border with Israel, late on Saturday. The entire block was "leveled to the ground," said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defense, adding that there were a large number of people still under the rubble.
Israeli officials say troops are battling to stop Hamas from regrouping in northern Gaza, and that the strategy there could be mimicked in other parts of the territory. At its most extreme, the battle plan, backed by key members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government, envisions systematically emptying areas of civilians and starving out - or shooting down - anyone who stays.
Israeli forces launched a new operation in northern Gaza two weeks ago, ramping up strikes and shelling, ordering swaths of the region to evacuate, and laying siege to the Jabalya refugee camp, still home to about 40,000 people, according to United Nations estimates.
Earlier Saturday, Israeli forces surrounded and fired on two hospitals in northern Gaza, according to local health authorities. They fired artillery shells at the upper floors of the Indonesian Hospital, the facility's director, Marwan Sultan, said in a phone interview. The hospital lost power and two patients in the intensive care unit died, he said.
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