– This is a massacre! They destroyed three houses, falling on the heads of women and children. There were more than 60 people inside, and we have removed 40 bodies from the rubble, Mahmud Radwan Meshmesh said after the overnight attack in Deir al-Balah south of Gaza City.

On Monday evening, at least 292 Palestinians were killed in intense Israeli airstrikes, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra said at a press conference in Gaza City on Monday afternoon.

– The Israeli army (IDF) has “committed 19 massacres in the last hours”, he claimed.

Among those killed, there were at least 2,640 women, according to the Health Ministry.

– Credible figures

Some people question the figures from the Ministry of Health, which, like other public institutions in Gaza, is controlled by Hamas. But the World Health Organization believes the figures are reliable.

Both the UN and independent human rights organizations also pointed out that the ministry’s figures were credible in previous wars as well.

On the Israeli side, more than 1,400 people were killed when Hamas attacked on October 7, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

Lost several family members

Throughout the night, the sky over the Palestinian enclave was colored by yellow and red explosions due to all the rocket attacks, several media reports.

In the morning, bodies began to pile up at Deir al-Balah hospital in the center of the Gaza Strip.

Mohammed Meshmesh, 54, who recently left the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, said he learned at dawn that he had lost several members of his family in the bombing that night.

Cellular coverage disappears

– The attacks are getting worse, and the victims are only civilians – women and children. We didn’t expect this. All communication was lost, he continued.

When bombs fell in the al-Mashaala neighborhood of Deir al-Balah, Mahmud Radwan Meshmesh said he could not call an ambulance.

– We had to send someone in a car to take the first victim to the morgue, and then alert the ambulance so they could come and take the body, said the 47-year-old man, who is Mohammed’s cousin.

I thought they were safe in the south

Meshmesh’s family wasn’t the only one to flee south to escape the worst of the war’s ravages.

Mohammed Abu Laila, 34, said he thought it would be safer to be further south in the Gaza Strip. Together with his family, he fled his home in al-Saftawi in the north after the Israeli army in October asked 1.1 million Palestinians to flee to the south.

Late Sunday night, the 34-year-old man and his family were at a house in Nuseirat when the violent attack began.

– We heard an explosion, and then we were under the rubble. There were 120 people in the house. Many were killed or injured. “We have prayed for the people who died,” he told AFP.

About 1.5 million people, or about 70 percent of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes since the war began, according to the UN.

– The hospital building shook

Strong Israeli attacks were also reported on the Shati refugee camp on Monday.

Eyewitnesses told the AP news agency that the Israeli military attacked the camp and the area around al-Shifa hospital while internet and telephone lines were cut.

Several houses were reportedly razed to the ground, and many were reported dead or injured.

– The entire camp is under attack. The al-Shifa hospital building shook all night as we brought in the dead and injured. It was absolutely terrifying, Ghassan Abu Sitta, a surgeon at the hospital, told the AP.

– Can capture Gaza city in a short time

The Israeli military confirmed that it had carried out “significant strikes” against Hamas in Gaza throughout Monday. 450 targets were attacked between Sunday and Monday morning, the IDF claimed. As of last week, the army had launched 12,000 air strikes against the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, there were reports in Israeli media that Israeli troops might enter Gaza City on Monday or Tuesday.

The city has been under siege by the IDF for several days, which has caused the Gaza Strip to be divided in two. The remaining residents say that the situation in the city is very bad.

On Monday evening, the top leaders of all the UN’s most important organizations agreed to a rare joint statement in which they called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza.

(© NTB)