Dozens feared dead after apparent strike destroys Gaza refugee camp building

Dozens of people are feared to be dead in northern Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp after an apparent strike destroyed a multi-story concrete building Saturday.

The blast came after the Israel Defense Forces warned people in the area “to evacuate urgently because it is dangerous for you to remain there.”

The building was housing more than 100 displaced people from northern Gaza, according to Anas Ah-Sharif, a freelance journalist there. 

Pictures from the scene showed the building flattened, with Palestine Red Crescent Society rescuers and local people trying to dig through the rubble — one using a broken frying pan without a handle to shift concrete dust. 

Dozens of victims from the camp were transferred to the nearby Indonesian hospital, while “many others are still being pulled out from under rubble,” Palestinian journalist Khader Za’noon told CNN.

The IDF did not immediately respond to CNN questions about the blast in the Jabalya refugee camp, which is Gaza’s largest.

The IDF had urged residents of several northern Gaza neighborhoods to evacuate and move south of Wadi Gaza on Saturday. The warnings were issued in Arabic on social media, but it is not clear that residents were able to receive the messages because electricity, phone signals and internet access are often disrupted in Gaza.

Strikes rain down on Gaza: The Israeli military said Saturday that it had carried out more than 400 strikes in the day since the truce with Hamas broke down on Friday morning.

Fadel Na’im, a doctor at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in northern Gaza, said Saturday more than 150 wounded people had arrived at the hospital from neighborhoods in the area, while at least 100 others had been brought to the hospital dead.

Families of victims there said their neighborhoods had been hit by airstrikes.