June 2024 northern Gaza City airstrikes

Overview

On 22 June 2024, two airstrikes conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck northern districts of Gaza City at roughly the same time. One airstrike hit a residential block in the al-Shati refugee camp, while the other struck houses in the Tuffah district. Together, the strikes killed at least 43 people and wounded dozens more.

Background

The al-Shati refugee camp had previously been targeted on 9 October 2023, within 48 hours of the start of the Gaza war, in an attack that destroyed four mosques and killed at least 15 Palestinians. On 10 November, the IDF invaded the camp during its wider invasion of the Gaza Strip, with the military claiming to have killed roughly 150 Hamas operatives during battles before taking control of the area. At the time of the June 2024 airstrikes, displaced Palestinians from northern Gaza had been told to seek refuge in al-Shati, which was being treated as a humanitarian safe zone.

The Airstrikes

The two strikes hit separate areas of northern Gaza City. Israeli media reported that the IDF may have been targeting a senior Hamas official. A Gaza City civil defense spokesperson described the attacks as feeling like "an earthquake" across the whole area, with several families buried under rubble. Many of the injured were taken to Baptist Hospital and al-Ahli Arab hospital, both of which reportedly struggled to treat casualties amid a severe shortage of fuel and medical supplies.

At least 24 Palestinians were killed in the al-Shati camp strike, and at least 18 were killed in the al-Tuffah strike. Dozens more were injured, including at least 35 in Tuffah, while at least 19 people working at a factory in Tuffah were reported missing. Gaza's Civil Defence stated that the vast majority of victims were civilians, including several children, and said dozens of people remained trapped under debris, with rescue operations described as extremely difficult.

Following the strikes, the IDF issued a statement saying it had struck "two Hamas military infrastructure sites."

Reactions

Hamas officials alleged that the airstrikes deliberately targeted civilians and stated that Israeli leadership would face retaliation. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) released a statement condemning what it called the IDF's "blatant disregard of humanitarian law," saying the indiscriminate nature of such attacks left no area of Gaza safe.