TEHRAN- Israel’s weekend massacre of Palestinian people in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip has once again underscored the inaction of Arab and Western leaders in the face of the regime’s appalling atrocities.

The Israeli army heavily bombarded residential buildings in Beit Lahiya overnight on Saturday and completely destroyed them. 

Health officials in Gaza said on Sunday that 87 people were killed after the attack. They said dozens of others were injured.

Israel launched an offensive in northern Gaza more than two weeks ago and laid a siege on the area, cutting off access to essentials such as food, water and medicine. 

Israeli attacks have led to severed phone and internet access. Communication blackouts along with road obstructions have hampered rescue efforts in Beit Lahiya.

An Israeli airstrike on Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip has killed nearly 100 Palestinians. On Saturday, a Gaza health official told Al Jazeera that three partially functioning hospitals treating severely wounded patients and sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza were out of service after coming under intense Israeli fire.

According to the Doha-based news channel, Israeli forces bombed al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia on Saturday and also shelled Kamal Adwan and the Indonesian hospitals in Beit Lahiya.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Muhannad Hadi, also said Saturday that the Indonesian Hospital “is no longer operational.”

War of extermination

The Gaza Media Office condemned the Israeli assault on Beit Lahiya as “a horrific massacre”.

 It added, “The Israeli occupation army continues its clear campaign of ethnic cleansing, extermination, and genocide, this time in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya also denounced the Israeli massacre in Beit Lahiya.

"The Zionist occupation is carrying out a planned operation to uproot our people in northern Gaza," he said. 

The massacre in Beit Lahiya comes a week after the White House gave Israel one month to reverse course on sealing off the north or risk losing American military assistance. 

But Israel continued its carnage in Gaza despite the US warning. The Beit Lahiya massacre has once again indicated that such US warnings are only aimed at appeasing domestic opposition to Washington’s unwavering support for Israel’s war of genocide in Gaza. 

Other Western countries such as Britain, Germany and France have also paid lip service and failed to take any practical measures to stop Israel’s killing machine in Gaza. 

Arab states have also kept mum about Israel’s brutalities, in particular in northern Gaza over the past two weeks. 

On October 12, the World Food Program stated that no food had entered northern Gaza since the start of the month

Aid officials also said on Saturday that they have seen no indications Israel is seeking to significantly increase aid to the area.

For now, as Israel is starving Palestinians in northern Gaza, the lack of action from Western and regional Arab states has emboldened the regime to continue its crimes against Palestinians with impunity.