Israeli attacks in Gaza kill at least 13 people, officials say, as first aid reaches the north in weeks

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Two separate Israeli attacks killed at least 13 people, including women and children, in Gaza on Saturday, Palestinian medical officials said, as Israel announced the first aid delivery in weeks to war-battered to land. North Gaza.

One of the attacks struck a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City’s eastern Tufah neighborhood, killing at least six people, Gaza’s health ministry said. The dead included two local journalists, a pregnant woman and a child, the ministry said. The Israeli military said the attack targeted a militant belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, without offering any evidence or further details.

Another seven people were killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent in the southern town of Khan Younis where displaced people were sheltering, according to Nasser Hospital. It said the dead included two women and a child. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the explosion.

COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian aid to Gaza, said on Saturday that 11 aid trucks carrying food, water and medical equipment reached the far north of the enclave on Thursday, including the urban refugee camp in Jabaliya. It is the first time that any aid has reached the far north of the enclave since Israel began a new military campaign there last month.

But not all the aid reached the agreed delivery points, according to a spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme, which was involved in the delivery process. In Jabaliya, Israeli forces stopped one of the convoys heading to nearby Beit Lahiya and ordered the supplies to be unloaded, Alia Zaki said.

The announcement comes days before a US deadline demanding Israel improve aid deliveries in Gaza. Experts have said it is it is very likely that there is a threat of famine in parts of northern Gaza.

Israel’s new offensive focuses on Jabaliya, a densely populated refugee camp where Israel says it has regrouped. Other areas affected by the new campaign include Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, just north of Gaza City.

The UN estimates that tens of thousands of people remain in the area. Earlier this week, Gaza’s Health Ministry said there were currently no ambulances or emergency services operating north of Gaza City.

Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli army has hit several schools and tent camps, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been driven from their homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders. According to UN figures, 90% of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced by the conflict.

The military has consistently accused Hamas of operating from Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including schools, UN facilities and hospitals. The controversial stories about the use of schools and hospitals go to the heart of the thirteen-month conflict.

In July, Israeli airstrikes hit a girls’ school in Gaza’s central city of Deir al-Balah, killing at least 30 people sheltering there. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center used to carry out attacks on its forces and store “large amounts of weapons.”

Over a year Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They make no distinction between civilians and fighters, but say more than half of the dead were women and children. The war started after that Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing approximately 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapping 250 others.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

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