Israeli attack in northern Gaza kills at least 60 people, officials say, as Hezbollah announces new leader

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – An Israeli attack on a five-story building sheltering displaced Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip At least 60 people were killed on Tuesday, more than half of them women and children, Gaza’s health ministry said.

In a separate development, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it has chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem as its new top leader following the killing of Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike last month.

The group said in a statement that Hezbollah’s decision-making Shura Council had chosen Kassem, who had been Nasrallah’s deputy leader for more than three decades, as the new secretary general. Hezbollah vowed to continue Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.”

Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of the health ministry’s field hospitals department in Gaza, announced at a news conference the toll of Tuesday’s strike in the northern city of Beit Lahiya. He says another 17 people are missing.

The ministry’s emergency services said at least 12 women and 20 children, including babies, were among the dead.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army, which has been waging a large-scale operation in northern Gaza for more than three weeks targeting what they say are groups of Hamas militants who have regrouped there.

The dead included a mother and her five children, some of them adults, and a second mother with her six children, according to an initial list of victims provided by the emergency service.

Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, said it was overwhelmed by the wave of injuries caused by the strike. Israeli forces raided the medical facility this weekend and arrested dozens of medics.

The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked shelters for displaced people in recent months, saying it has carried out precise attacks on Palestinian militants and tried not to harm civilians. Women and children have often been killed in the strikes.

The military said it has arrested dozens of Hamas militants in the attack on Kamal Adwan, the latest in a series of attacks on hospitals since the start of the war.

The latest major Israeli operation in northern Gaza, targeting the Jabaliya refugee camp, has killed hundreds of people and driven tens of thousands from their homes. a new wave of mass movement more than a year after the war in the small coastal area.

Israel also sharply limited aid to the north this month a warning from the United States that the inability to facilitate greater aid efforts could lead to a reduction in military aid.

The Palestinians are afraid that Israel will take action a plan proposed by a group of former generalswhich suggested that the civilian population of the north should be ordered to evacuate, that aid deliveries should be halted and that anyone left there should be considered militant.

The military has denied it is implementing such a plan, while the government has not clearly said whether it is implementing it in whole or in part.

On Monday, Israel’s parliament passed two laws that could block the UN agency for Palestinian refugees the largest aid provider in Gaza – of operating in the Palestinian territories. It was the culmination of a long-running campaign against UNRWA, which Israel claims has been infiltrated by Hamas, allegations the organization denies.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250. There are still about 100 hostages in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. About 90% of the 2.3 million residents have been displaced from their homes, often several times.

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Mroue from Beirut.

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