At least 22 killed in Israeli attacks on northern Gaza

Israeli attacks on northern Gaza have killed at least 22 people, most of them women and children, as the offensive in the isolated area entered a third week.

Gaza’s health ministry said 11 women and two children were among those killed in the strikes late Saturday in the northern city of Beit Lahiya.

Another 15 people were said to have been injured.

In another development, a truck rammed a bus stop near Tel Aviv, killing one person and injuring more than 30.

The attack in Ramat Hasharon came as Israelis returned to work after a week-long vacation, and took place outside a military base near the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

Israeli police said the attacker was an Arab citizen of Israel.

Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group praised the attack but did not say they were behind it.

The Israeli military said another attack took place near a checkpoint in the West Bank, with a suspect trying to ram soldiers with his vehicle and then stabbing them before being killed. No soldiers were injured, it added.

Later on Sunday, protesters disrupted a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a nationally televised ceremony commemorating the victims of Hamas’ attack on southern Israel last year.

People shouted “Shame on you” and caused a commotion, forcing Netanyahu to stop his speech. Many Israelis blame their prime minister for the failures that led to the attack and hold him responsible for not yet bringing the remaining hostages home.

In Beit Lahiya, the Israeli army said it had carried out a precise attack on militants in a structure and had taken steps to prevent harm to civilians. It disputed what it said were “media published figures”.

Israel has been waging an air and ground offensive in northern Gaza for the past three weeks after claiming Hamas militants had regrouped there.

Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled to Gaza City in the latest wave of displacement in the years-long war.

The Civil Defense First Responder, operating under the Hamas-led government in Gaza, said it had recovered a number of bodies after an Israeli airstrike on Sunday on a school in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City.

Aid groups have warned of a catastrophic situation in northern Gaza, which was the first target of Israel’s ground offensive and has suffered the worst destruction of the war. Israel has severely restricted access to basic humanitarian aid in recent weeks, and the three remaining hospitals in the north – one of which was raided this weekend – say they have been overwhelmed by waves of injured people.

The UN Secretary General, in a statement released by his spokesman, accused Israeli authorities of refusing most aid deliveries of food and medicine amid “distressing deaths”.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday that Israeli evacuation orders and restrictions on access to essential supplies had left the civilian population in “horrendous conditions”.

On Saturday, Israeli warplanes attacked Iran – which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah – in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

The successive conflicts have raised fears of an all-out regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant allies, which also include the Houthi rebels in Yemen and armed groups in Syria and Iraq.

Israel says its attacks on Gaza target only militants and blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants fight in densely populated areas. The military rarely comments on individual attacks, which often kill women and children.

The war began when Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s border wall and stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack in October 2023. They killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive, according to the local health ministry. She does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in her count, but says more than half of the dead were women and children.

The offensive has destroyed much of the impoverished coastal region and displaced around 90% of the population, often several times. Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in squalid tent camps along the coast, and aid groups say hunger is rampant.