Al-Zafer apartment tower in Gaza City.
The Israeli regime has bombed a 12-story residential building in the center of the beleaguered Gaza Strip, leaving dozens injured.
The Zafer Tower, located in Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in southern Gaza City, was toppled by Israel’s warplanes on Saturday.
Two missiles hit the tower within seconds causing a massive fireball, which was followed by smoke rising into the sky.
According to some reports, 22 people were wounded, including 11 children and five women.
The strikes, which shook the neighboring high-rises in the area, brought down entire tower with 44 apartments.
"People started shouting Allahu Akbar [God is great], and women and kids were screaming," said a resident, adding, "This is crazy. The state of Israel has resorted to madness. In less than a minute, 44 families have become displaced ... They lost everything, their house, their money, their memories and their security."
The Israeli military claimed it targeted a room belonging to Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in the building.
Reports say that the collateral damage was immense, and the residents of two nearby buildings had also been warned to evacuate for impending air strikes.
Israeli warplanes and tanks have been pounding the blockaded enclave since early July, inflicting heavy losses on the Palestinian land.
Some 2,100 people, mostly civilians, have lost their lives and over 10,200 have been injured despite pressure from the international community on the Tel Aviv regime to end aggression against Palestinians.
Nearly 400,000 Palestinian children are in immediate need of psychological help due to “catastrophic and tragic impact” of the Israeli war, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
NTJ/HH
