Medical sources in Gaza say at least 198 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air attacks launched after a Hamas offensiveagainst Israel that killed at least 70.
The group running the besieged enclave said its surprise, large-scale operation was in response to the desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque and increased settler violence.
The operation comes after thousands of settlers in recent days carried out provocative tours of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
It also follows a major uptick of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians over the past year, occurring at a rate of three per day for the first eight months of 2023, according to the United Nations.
Al Jazeera’s Youma AlSayed says that the tower behind her that was hit by an Israeli missile was a residential building.
AlSayed was reporting live when the missile struck.
One of the apartments was previously targeted in August 2022, killing Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Taysir al-Jabari.
“But this time, the building was totally destroyed and brought to the ground. Looking at all the buildings adjacent to it, you can imagine the amount of destruction that is in [the vicinity]. And this is point, I’ve been saying over and over: The Gaza Strip is a very densely populated area,” she said.