The Israeli military writes on the messaging app Telegram that they are investigating the reports, but that the numbers of dead and injured are exaggerated. They do not match the information Israel has about the event, which they say was an attack directed against Hamas terrorists. The military does not provide any specific numbers itself.
"We emphasize that the area is an active war zone", the military writes and claims that they are trying to avoid harming civilians by all means.
In addition to the dead, dozens of people are reported to have been injured and many are missing. The report of the attack in Beit Lahia came late on Saturday evening.
Earlier in the day, reports emerged that Israel had surrounded and shelled one of the few remaining hospitals in northern Gaza. Israel claims, however, that no intentional shelling of the hospital has taken place.
According to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, Israeli forces had cut off the power supply and shelled the building's second and third floors with artillery.
Reports of Israeli siege, with dead and injured as a result, also came from the al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military has been subjecting Jabalia to extensive shelling and siege for over two weeks. The Spanish news agency Efe, citing official sources, reported earlier on Saturday that around 500 people had been killed in 15 days.
Palestinians are going through "unimaginable horrors" in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, according to Joyce Msuya, the UN's Acting Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.
"Terrible news from northern Gaza where Palestinians continue to endure unimaginable horrors under the siege of Israeli forces", Msuya writes on X.
