Israeli army ‘regrets’ deadly airstrike on Gaza refugee camp

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army on Thursday took responsibility for an airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip that left dozens of people dead.

“The IDF (army) regrets the harm to those who were uninvolved and is working to learn lessons from the incident,” a military spokesman told public broadcaster KAN.

At least 86 people were killed and dozens injured when fighter jets struck two residential buildings in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp on Dec. 24, according to local health authorities.

An Israeli military official blamed “improper ordnance” for the high death toll in the attack.

“The type of munition did not match the nature of the attack, causing extensive collateral damage which could have been avoided,” the official told Israeli public broadcaster KAN.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.

At least 21,110 Palestinians have since been killed and 55,243 others injured, according to local health authorities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave's infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicines.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Ankara