An Israeli strike on a five-story building sheltering displaced Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 34 people early Tuesday, more than half of them women and children, the Ministry of Defense said. Gaza Health.
In another development, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it had chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem as its new supreme leader following the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike last month.
The group said in a statement that Hezbollah’s Shura Council had elected Kassem, who had been Nasrallah’s deputy leader for more than three decades, as its new secretary general.
Hezbollah pledged to continue Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.”
The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency services said another 20 people were injured in the attack in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya, near the Israeli border.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army, which has been carrying out a large-scale operation in northern Gaza for more than three weeks, targeting what it says are pockets of militants. of Hamas who regrouped there.
Among the dead are a mother and her five children, some of them adults, as well as a second mother and her six children, according to an initial list of victims provided by emergency services.
Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, director of the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, said he was overwhelmed by the wave of injuries resulting from the strike.
Israeli forces raided the medical center over the weekend, arresting dozens of doctors.
The Israeli military has repeatedly struck shelters for displaced people in recent months, saying it carried out precise strikes targeting Palestinian militants and tried to avoid harming civilians.
Strikes often killed women and children.
The army said it arrested numerous Hamas militants in the raid on Kamal Adwan, the latest in a series of raids on hospitals since the start of the war.
Israel’s latest major operation in northern Gaza, centered on the Jabaliya refugee camp, has killed hundreds of people and driven tens of thousands from their homes in a new wave of mass displacement, more than a year after the start of the war in this small coastal territory.
Israel also sharply restricted aid to the north this month, prompting the United States to warn that failure to facilitate larger aid efforts could lead to a reduction in military aid.
The Palestinians fear that Israel will implement a plan proposed by a group of former generals, who suggested that the civilian population in the north should be ordered to evacuate, that aid supplies should be cut off and that anyone remaining there should be considered an activist.
The military has denied implementing such a plan, while the government has not made it clear whether it is implementing all or part of it.
On Monday, the Israeli parliament passed two laws that could prevent the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees – the largest aid provider to Gaza – from operating in the Palestinian territories.
It was the culmination of a long campaign against UNRWA, which Israel says has been infiltrated by Hamas, allegations the agency denies.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping around 250.
Around a hundred hostages are still 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. Around 90% of the 2.3 million residents have been displaced from their homes, often multiple times.
