At least 22 people were killed after Israel carried out strikes on several homes and buildings in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, in Northern Gaza late on Saturday. As per the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service, the victims included 11 women and 2 children.
According to the Associated Press (AP), the ministry said another 15 people were injured and it is likely that the death toll could rise. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
A massive air and ground offensive has been carried out by Israel in northern Gaza for the past three weeks after it said that Hamas militants regrouped there. As per the AP report, hundreds have been killed and thousands of Palestinians have fled to Gaza City following the latest wave of displacement in the yearlong war.
Israel continues to carry out daily strikes in Gaza, even as it wages war with the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.
As per AP, Israel has said that it only strikes in Gaza targeting militants and it continues to blame Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants fight in densely populated areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
Earlier this week, Israeli forces breached a hospital compound in northern Gaza as the United Nations warned that the war’s “darkest moment” was unfolding in the north of the Strip.
The Israeli military, after laying siege, to the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, entered the hospital compound twice within 24 hours and opened fire at parts of the complex, the Gaza health ministry and the hospital director told CNN.
“One of the darkest moments of the Gaza conflict is unfolding in the north of the Strip,” the UN’s human rights chief Volker Turk said Friday.
On Saturday, Israel attacked several military targets in Iran in retaliation for the barrage of ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic fired on Israel earlier this month. This was the first time Israel openly attacked Iran.
The rising conflicts have fueled concerns of a full-scale regional war that would involve Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant allies, which includes Yemen's Houthi rebels and armed factions in Syria and Iraq, as per AP.