Israel Targeted Refugee-Dense Apartment Building in Gaza Using Explosive Barrels, Blocked Escape: Sole Survivor Speaks Out

Gaza (Quds News Network)- In a harrowing account from the sole survivor of a deadly airstrike in Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, reports reveal that Israeli forces targeted a densely populated five-story residential building with explosive barrels on Tuesday, killing 247 people. The strike was part of a recent escalation in Israeli attacks aimed at maximizing casualties among displaced Palestinians, including those sheltering in large groups.
Mohammed Nabil Abu Nasr, the sole survivor of the attack on his family’s building, recounted how Israeli forces targeted the structure’s staircase to block any chance of escape for the hundreds of occupants inside. “There were about 100 residents in the building, and with displaced families and relatives taking refuge there, we numbered over 230 people,” said Abu Nasr. “They hit the staircase first to prevent anyone from fleeing.”
شهادة مهمة للناجي الوحيد من مجزرة عائلة أبو نصر في بيت لاهيا، شمال قطاع غزة المحاصر، والتي راح ضحيتها ما لا يقل عن 119 شهيدًا تم انتشالهم والتعرف عليهم وتسجيلهم، بالإضافة إلى عدد من الجرحى، وما زال أكثر من 120 آخرين تحت الأنقاض.
A crucial testimony from the sole survivor of the… pic.twitter.com/IvkOvRVRQF
— د. منير عبدالله البرش (@Dr_Muneer1) November 1, 2024
Abu Nasr, who lived on the ground floor, narrowly escaped but was targeted by a drone while fleeing. Nearby families helped him survive, as emergency medical services were unable to reach the site. “I pleaded with the Red Cross and emergency teams, but friends informed me no one could come,” he said. “We began recovering bodies and the injured ourselves, pulling out around 15 injuries using donkey carts. The explosion was so intense that bodies were scattered to nearby buildings.”
As volunteers and survivors attempted to recover bodies, Israeli drones reportedly fired at them, Abu Nasr recounted. By the second day, only 119 bodies could be retrieved, with an estimated 120 victims still trapped under the rubble. Abu Nasr noted that ten families from the Abu Nasr family were completely erased from civil records, while the remaining families also lost half of its members in the massacre.
Targeting Gatherings of Displaced Civilians
The survivor’s testimony sheds light on the escalating toll of Israel’s current brutal air and ground assaults in Gaza, which has increasingly focused on areas with high concentrations of displaced people, often using indiscriminate weaponry.
In recent days, Israeli forces have continued to escalate attacks on shelters and schools housing THOUSANDS OF displaced Palestinians in Gaza, leading to mounting casualties and devastation. These locations, often the last refuge for families fleeing relentless bombardment, have turned into tragic scenes of loss.
On Friday, at least ten citizens were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli shelling targeting the entrance of a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Artillery fire struck the gate of a school filled with families seeking refuge, leaving a devastating toll. Witnesses and survivors described the chaos as people attempted to find safety within the already crowded facility, only to be met with sudden destruction.
The strikes on schools in Gaza have become distressingly common. Just days prior, Israeli warplanes targeted Salah al-Din school, run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in western Gaza, killing seven people and injuring many others. Witnesses say this school, the tenth hit by Israeli forces in recent weeks, was crammed with displaced people seeking shelter from ongoing bombardment. Moments before this strike, Israeli forces had launched air raids around Abu Nuwaira school in Khan Younis, where families were similarly affected.
On Wednesday, shelling on makeshift camps in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis in the south killed and injured multiple people. In each attack, Israel claimed it was targeting militants, a justification that lacks evidence and human rights organizations frequently challenge, citing the high number of civilian casualties and widespread destruction of non-military sites.
The targeting of shelters and schools has drawn criticism from human rights groups but has largely been met with international silence, intensifying the sense of isolation among Gaza’s population. As the humanitarian crisis deepens, calls for accountability continue to go unanswered, leaving civilians increasingly vulnerable.