Human Rights Watch says Israeli strikes on Gaza building in October killed 106 civilians

Human Rights Watch says an Israeli strike on a Gaza apartment building in October killed at least 106 civilians, including 54 children.

The New York-based rights group says its investigation into the attack, published today, found no evidence of any military target, making it a war crime.

The attack was one of the deadliest since the start of the war nearly six months ago after Hamas invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapping 253.

Human Rights Watch says four separate strikes collapsed the Engineer’s Building in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, which was housing some 350 people, around a third of whom had fled their homes elsewhere in the territory.

Those killed included children playing soccer outside and residents charging phones in the first-floor grocery store.

The rights group says it interviewed 16 people, including relatives of those killed in the October 31 strike, and analyzed satellite imagery, 35 photographs and 45 videos of the aftermath. It was unable to visit the site because Israel heavily restricts access to Gaza.

Witnesses told the rights group there was no warning ahead of the attack. Human Rights Watch says Israeli authorities have not published any information about the purported target and did not respond to its requests for information.

The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press today.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, which operates in dense, residential areas.