He said another 40 people were wounded in attacks on the town of Beit Lahiya, which was among the first targets of Israel’s ground invasion almost a year ago.
The attacks came as the United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents assessing Israel’s plans to attack Iran, according to three US officials. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate.
The documents, attributed to the US Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency and marked top secret, indicate that Israel was moving military assets to the site to carry out a military strike in response to the US ballistic missile attack. They will go on October 1st.
The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The United States is urging Israel to press for a ceasefire in Gaza following the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week. But neither Israel nor Hamas have shown any renewed interest in such an agreement, after months of negotiations that stalled in August.
Iran supports Hamas and the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, where a year of escalating tensions led to an all-out war last month. Israel sent ground troops to Lebanon in early October.
There was no immediate comment on the strikes in Beit Lahiya by the Israeli military, which said it “continued to operate throughout Gaza in both airstrikes and ground operations.”
Among the dead were two parents and their four children, and a woman, her son and daughter-in-law and her four children, according to Raheem Kheder, a doctor. He said the impact toppled a multi-story building and at least four neighboring homes.
Mounir al-Bursh, director general of the Ministry of Health, said in a post on
Internet connectivity was cut in northern Gaza on Saturday night and had not yet been restored as of midday Sunday, making it difficult to gather information about the attacks.
Israel has been carrying out a major operation in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, also in northern Gaza, for the past two weeks. The army says it launched the operation against Hamas militants who had regrouped there.
The north has already suffered the greatest destruction of the war and has been surrounded by Israeli forces since late last year, following Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel.
Israel ordered the entire population of the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, to evacuate south in the first weeks of the war and reiterated those instructions earlier this month. Most of the population fled last year, but around 400,000 people are believed to have remained in the north.
Palestinians who fled the north at the start of the war have not been allowed to return.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants punched holes in Israel’s security fence and breached it, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping another 250. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. that do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
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