GAZA (Reuters) – A video in Gaza being shared on social media and verified by Reuters on Friday showed the bodies of at least seven people lying apparently dead on a road running south of Gaza City, which is currently under siege by Israeli forces.
Reuters located the video as being made on the al-Rashid coast road between Gaza City and Wadi Gaza. Reuters could not immediately verify the date it was filmed but verified that it had not been circulating on social media before Friday. Reuters could not verify the identity of the person who recorded the video, nor the identity of the people shown.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the video.
The video showed some debris and many personal possessions scattered around the people, who included at least one child. Blood stains marked the road.
It was taken by a man or boy cycling along the road and past the scene, speaking as he passed by and starting to cry. At one point another person cycling behind him was visible.
“God, a child. God, women. God, the girl. Please God protect our people. Please look,” the cyclist is heard saying in Arabic.
Israel said late on Thursday its forces had encircled Gaza City after earlier this week cutting off the northern Gaza Strip from the south of the enclave near to Gaza Wadi.
It has said it wants to destroy Hamas, which carried out an attack on Israeli fortifications and towns on Oct. 7 that Israel says killed 1,400 people, as well as seizing 240 hostages.
Health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave say Israel has killed 9,227 people including 3,826 children during nearly three weeks of intense air and artillery strikes.
People fleeing northern Gaza areas have previously accused Israel of targeting some who tried to flee to the south.
Israel last month ordered all civilians to leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, and head to the south of the enclave, which it has also continued to bomb.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Anna Magdalena Lubowicka; Writing by Angus McDowall; editing by Diane Craft and Rosalba O’Brien)
