Gaza Beach Cafe Strike: Many Civilians Killed Alongside Hamas Operative

The BBC has reviewed 29 names of people reported killed in the strike on the cafe on Monday. Twenty-six of the deaths were confirmed by multiple sources, including through interviews with family, friends and eyewitness accounts.

At least nine of those killed were women, and several were children or teenagers. They included artists, students, social activists, a female boxer, a footballer and cafe staff.

The conduct of the strike and the scale of civilian casualties have amplified questions over the proportionality of Israel's military operations in Gaza, which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say are aimed at defeating Hamas and rescuing the hostages still being held by the group.

Family members in Gaza and abroad spoke to the BBC of their shock and devastation at the killings.

\"We were talking with each other two days ago. We were sending reels to each other. I can't believe it,\" said a young Palestinian man living in the US whose 21-year-old \"bestie\" Muna Juda and another close friend, Raghad Alaa Abu Sultan, were both killed in the strike.

The numbers of deaths analysed by the BBC were broadly consistent with figures given by the Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency, a senior local medic and the Palestinian Red Crescent in the days after the strike.

Staff at Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies, said its toll as of Thursday had reached 40 deaths, including people who had succumbed to their injuries, and unidentified bodies.

An official at the hospital said some of the bodies had been \"blown to pieces\", and that 72 injured patients were brought there - many having sustained severe burns and significant injuries that required surgery. He said many were students.

In a statement after the strike, the IDF said it had been targeting \"terrorists\" and that steps were taken to \"mitigate the risk of harming civilians using aerial surveillance\".

\"The IDF will continue to operate against the Hamas terrorist organization in order to remove any threat posed to Israeli civilians,\" it added, before saying the \"incident\" was \"under review\".

The IDF did not directly respond to multiple BBC questions about the target of the strike, or whether it considered the number of civilian casualties to be proportionate.