Israeli attacks on northern Gaza kill at least 22 people, while truck ramming near Tel Aviv leaves one dead

RAMAT HASHARON, Israel — Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said on Sunday, as the Israeli offensive in the hard-hit and isolated area entered a third week and the UN Secretary General announced the fate of Palestinians there called “unbearable.” Israel said it was targeting militants.

In another development, a truck rammed a bus stop near Tel Aviv, killing one person and injuring more than 30. Israeli police said the attacker was an Arab citizen of Israel. The rammings took place outside a military base and near the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

Iran’s supreme leader, meanwhile, said Israeli strikes on the country Saturday in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month “should not be exaggerated or downplayed,” while he stopped short of calling for retaliation. It was Israel’s first open attack on its arch-enemy.

That exchange of fire has raised fears of an all-out regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant allies, including Hamas and the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion earlier this month after nearly attacking. year of lower-level conflict.

Two Israeli attacks in the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon killed eight people and injured 25, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. One attack hit a residential building, according to footage taken by an Associated Press reporter.

The Israeli army said four soldiers, including a military rabbi, were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, without giving details. Five other staff were said to have been seriously injured. An explosive drone and a projectile fired from Lebanon injured five people in Israel, authorities said.

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Netanyahu says attacks on Iran have achieved Israel’s objectives

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his first public comments on the attacks that “we have seriously damaged Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles aimed at us.”

Satellite images showed damage to two secret Iranian military bases, one linked to work on nuclear weapons that Western intelligence agencies and nuclear inspectors say were halted in 2003, and another linked to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iran said on Sunday that a civilian had been killed, without details. Earlier it was said that four people from the military air defense had been killed.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, said that “it is up to the authorities to determine how to transfer the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime.” Khamenei would make a final decision on how Iran responds.

Later on Sunday, demonstrators disrupted a speech by Netanyahu at a nationally televised ceremony for the victims of last year’s Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. People shouted “Shame on you” and forced Netanyahu to stop his speech. Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for the failures that led to the attack and hold him responsible for the failure to return the remaining hostages.

An Israeli official said Mossad chief David Barnea is traveling to Qatar for talks on a ceasefire and the release of hostages. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details.

Dozens of people have been injured in a truck collision in Israel

In Ramat Hasharon, northeast of Tel Aviv, the truck crashed into a bus as Israelis returned to work after a holiday, leaving some people trapped under vehicles.

Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom said six of the injured were in serious condition. The Ichilov Medical Center reported that one person had died.

Asi Aharoni, a police spokesman, told reporters that the attacker had been “neutralized,” without saying whether the attacker was dead.

Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group praised the attack but did not claim credit for it.

Palestinians have committed numerous stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks over the years. Tensions have risen dramatically since the start of the war in Gaza. Israel has regularly carried out military attacks in the occupied West Bank, killing hundreds. Most appear to be militants killed in firefights with Israeli forces, but Palestinians taking part in violent protests and civilian bystanders have also been killed.

‘Horrible conditions’ in northern Gaza

The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency department said 11 women and two children were among 22 killed in attacks late Saturday on several homes and buildings in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. Another fifteen were said to have been injured. The Israeli army said it carried out an attack on militants.

Israel has been waging a major air and ground offensive in northern Gaza since early October, claiming Hamas militants have 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.

Civil defense first responders operating under the Hamas-led government in Gaza said they had recovered a number of bodies after an Israeli airstrike 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 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.

In a statement from his spokesperson, the UN Secretary General reported ‘distressing death figures’. The International Committee of the Red Cross on Saturday described the civilian population in “horrific conditions.”

The war began when Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s border wall and stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack on October 7, 2023. They killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250. About 100 hostages remain in prison. Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli retaliatory offensive. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but says more than half of the dead were women and children. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The offensive has destroyed much of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its 2.3 million residents, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people have crowded into squalid tent camps, and aid groups say hunger is rampant.

Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, Magdy from Cairo and Krauss from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press reporters Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Jon Gambrell in Dubai and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.