Israel attacks on Gaza refugee camp kills dozens of Palestinians

Heavy bombardment of the Gaza Strip from Israeli warplanes continues for a sixth day, flattening neighbourhoods and targeting homes with residents inside them.

The air attacks on Thursday targeted two homes belonging to the al-Masri and al-Hasani families in the Shati (Beach) refugee camp in Gaza City along the Mediterranean coast.

Israel said it has dropped 6,000 bombs in six days on the besieged enclave, one of the world’s most densely populated areas.

Gaza has been cut off from the rest of the world by the Israeli military for 16 years, effectively forcing its 2.3 million residents to live in an open-air prison.

Shati is the third-largest refugee camp among the eight in the Gaza Strip, and also one of its most crowded, with more than 90,000 people living in an area of less than half a square kilometre.

Thursday’s air raids on the camp killed 13 people belonging to two families.

“Eight of my family members have been killed so far,” Saad al-Masri told Al Jazeera. “My brother Abu Mohammed lost his two sons, Yaser and Ramadan, and their daughters Abeer, Firyal and Aya.”

The 50-year-old said more bodies could be trapped under the rubble, but there were no machines to pull them out.

Gaza City’s main hospital has run out of space in its morgue and bodies in white body bags are lying on the floor.

The Israeli assault on the Shati camp was followed by similar aerial attacks throughout the Gaza Strip. According to Gaza health authorities, at least 31 people from the Shihab family, most of them women and children, were killed after an Israeli attack on their home in Jabalia, the biggest refugee camp in northern Gaza.

In the central town of Deir el-Balah, at least 14 members of the Azaizeh family were killed after their house was targeted.

The death toll has now surpassed 1,500, with 60 percent of Palestinians killed being women and children, health officials have said. More than 6,000 others have been wounded.