At least 22 people, most of them women and children, were killed in Israeli strikes in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials announced on Sunday, while Israel said it was targeting activists.
The Israeli offensive in the isolated and badly affected north has entered its third week and is described by aid groups as a humanitarian disaster.
In another development, a truck crashed into a bus station near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, injuring 35 people, according to the Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom. Israeli police described the incident as an attack and said the attacker was an Arab citizen in Israel. The collision occurred near the headquarters of the Israeli spy agency Mossad.
Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader said that Israeli attacks on the country over the weekend “should neither be exaggerated nor underestimated,” but stopped short of calling for retaliation, suggesting that Iran is carefully considering its response to the attack.
On Saturday, Israeli warplanes attacked military targets in Iran in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 85-year-old Iranian leader who will make the final decision on any response, said: “It is up to the authorities to determine how to transfer the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and take action.” “serves the interests of this nation and this nation.”
The exchange of fire raised fears of an all-out regional war between Israel and the United States against Iran and its armed proxies, including Hamas and the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, as Israel launched a ground invasion earlier this month after nearly 30 years. of invasion. A year of conflict at a lower level.
Attacking people at the bus station
Magen David Adom has posted images of a large truck with an almost empty bed that appears to have been hit by a bus. In addition to being near Mossad headquarters, the bus station is also near a central highway intersection, and the incident occurred as the Israelis were returning to work after a week's vacation.
Israeli police spokesman Asi Aharoni told Kan public radio that “the attacker has been neutralized,” indicating that police are treating the incident as an attack. It was unclear whether the suspect had been arrested or killed.
Aharoni said a truck crashed into a bus and people waiting at the station, and there were injuries trapped under the car. Eli Benn, director of Magen David Adom, said six of the injured were in serious condition.
Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbings, shootings and car attacks over the years. Tensions have risen since the outbreak of war in Gaza, when Israel carried out regular military incursions into the occupied West Bank, leaving hundreds dead. Most of them appear to have been militants killed during exchanges of fire with Israeli forces, but Palestinians participating in violent protests and civilian bystanders were also killed.
“Horrible conditions” in northern Gaza
The Health Ministry's Emergency Service in Gaza said 11 women and two children were among 22 people killed in attacks that targeted several homes and buildings late Saturday in the town of Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza. He added that another 15 people were injured and that the death toll could rise. He listed the names of the dead, most of whom belonged to three families.
The Israeli military said it carried out a targeted attack on activists in a building in Beit Lahia and took measures to avoid harming civilians. He disputed what he said were “figures published by the media,” without clarifying or providing evidence for his own story.
Israel has been launching a large-scale air and ground attack on northern Gaza since October 6, claiming that Hamas activists have regrouped there. Hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians fled to Gaza City in the latest wave of displacement in a year of war.
Israel says its attacks on Gaza target only militants and blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants are fighting in densely populated areas. The military rarely comments on individual attacks that often kill women and children.
Aid groups have warned of a catastrophic situation in northern Gaza, which was the first target of the Israeli ground offensive and has already suffered the greatest destruction during the war. Israel has been accused of severely restricting the entry of essential humanitarian aid in recent weeks, and the three remaining hospitals in the north – one of which was raided over the weekend – say they have been overwhelmed by waves of wounded.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday that ongoing Israeli evacuation orders and restrictions on the entry of essential supplies to the north had left civilians in “dire conditions.”
He added: “Many civilians are currently unable to move, trapped by fighting, destruction or physical restrictions, and now lack basic medical care.”
The war began when Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel's border wall and attacked southern Israel in a surprise attack on October 7, 2023. They killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped about 250. , according to Israeli officials. About 100 hostages remain inside Gaza and about a third of them are believed to be dead.
The Israeli retaliation attack led to the deaths of more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the local Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its statistics, but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it killed more than 17,000 militants without providing evidence.
The attack destroyed much of the poor coastal land and displaced about 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into squalid camps along the coast, and aid groups say hunger is widespread.
