The Gaza health ministry has said 77 people were killed or are missing following an air strike in northern Gaza.
The strike hit a five-story building in Beit Lahiya at around 6:30 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. ET) on Tuesday.
Video from the scene shows the building almost destroyed. Other videos show more than a dozen bodies wrapped in shrouds on the ground or loaded into a cart.
Gaza Civil Defense said many displaced families were sheltering in the building.
The health ministry said there were no doctors to treat the wounded in Kamal Adwan Hospital, which has also come under Israeli fire in recent days.
The director of Kamal Adwan hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, told CNN: “We need a safe corridor for medical teams to arrive as quickly as possible. We have children in the intensive care unit who need amputations.”
The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza claimed that many of the victims in Beit Lahiya were women and children.
CNN is trying to confirm casualty numbers but communications with northern Gaza are at best intermittent.
CNN is reaching out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the target of the strike. The Israeli military began a renewed ground and air campaign in northern Gaza at the beginning of the month.
