An Israeli strike targeting a Hamas commander in the densely populated Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza has left catastrophic damage and killed a large number of people, according to eyewitnesses and medics in the enclave. Photo: CNN

The devastation wrought by the strike triggered a fresh groundswell of grief over spiraling civilian casualties, as Gazans awoke to another communications blackout Wednesday morning.

Survivors and eyewitnesses spoke of apocalyptic scenes in the aftermath of the strike, which tore a massive crater through the middle of the crowded camp.

“I was waiting in line to buy bread when suddenly and without any prior warning seven to eight missiles fell,” an eyewitness, Mohammad Ibrahim, told CNN.

“There were seven to eight huge holes in the ground, full of killed people, body parts all over the place,” he said. “It felt like the end of the world.”

According to a statement by the Israel Defense Forces, the airstrike targeted and killed Ibrahim Biari, whom it described as one of the Hamas commanders responsible for the October 7 attack on Israel, which left more than 1,400 people dead and hundreds taken hostage.

Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, October 31

The IDF also said “numerous other Hamas terrorists” were hit in the strike, and claimed the Central Jabalya Battalion had taken control of civilian buildings.

Hamas however has strongly denied the presence of one of its leaders in the refugee camp. Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the militant group, accused Israel of attempting to justify what he described as a “heinous crime against safe civilians, children, and women in Jabalya camp.”

Eyewitness Mohammad Al Aswad described a “horrific scene” in the aftermath of the strike, telling CNN that he ran to the refugee camp to check on family after hearing the missiles land.

“Children were carrying other injured children and running, with grey dust filling the air. Bodies were hanging on the rubble, many of them unrecognized. Some were bleeding and others were burnt,” Al Aswad told CNN by telephone.

People in the area were hysterical, he added. “I saw women screaming and confused. They didn’t know whether to cry for losing their children or run and look for them, especially since many children were playing in the neighborhood.”

Casualty figures from the airstrike are not yet clear and the communications blackout in the Strip has made it difficult to establish the full extent of the toll. Officials in Hamas-run Gaza, as well as medics who treated the casualties, say the attack caused “hundreds” of deaths and injuries.

Jabalia is a densely populated refugee camp established shortly after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from the territory that encompassed the newly established State of Israel, and later denied return.

The camp is a crowded built-up area with houses, shops and apartment buildings jammed up against one another, the roads between them in many areas barely wide enough for a car to pass.

Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht accused Hamas of “hiding, as they do, behind civilians.” Reminded that there are many innocent civilians in the camp, Hecht responded, “This is the tragedy of war” and urged civilians to move south.

Southern Gaza has also seen lethal airstrikes, and aid organizations have repeatedly warned that there is no safe place in the isolated enclave. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 8,485 people and injured more than 21,000, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, which draws on information from the Hamas-controlled enclave.

On Wednesday, two Palestinian telecoms firms announced internet and communication network disruptions in Gaza. Paltel said there was a “complete interruption of all communications and internet services in the Gaza Strip,” while mobile phone services from the communications company Jawwal were also down, according to a company statement.