An Israeli strike on the central Gaza Strip has killed a family of eight, Palestinian medical officials said.
The strike came as Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants and pushed for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from the north of the territory.
Israel is also waging an air and ground campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month, though it has not said how or when.
The strike in Gaza late Saturday hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing parents and their six children, who ranged in age from eight to 23, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, where the bodies were taken.
It said another seven people were wounded, including two women and a child in critical condition. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies and filmed funeral prayers held at the hospital.
More than a year into the war with Hamas, Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza nearly every day. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areas.
The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children. In recent months, it has repeatedly struck schools being used as shelters by displaced people, accusing militants of hiding among them.
In northern Gaza, Israeli air and ground forces have been attacking Jabaliya, where the military says militants have regrouped. Over the past year, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the built-up refugee camp.
Israel has ordered the full evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 people remain in the north after a mass evacuation ordered in the opening weeks of the war.
The Palestinians fear Israel intends to permanently depopulate the north to establish military bases or Jewish settlements.
The military confirmed on Saturday that hospitals were included in the evacuation orders but said it had not set a specific timetable.
It said a medical convoy scheduled to transfer patients from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in recent days was cancelled for security reasons – without elaborating – but that the convoy had delivered fuel to the hospital on Saturday.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250.
Around 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s bombardment and ground invasions of Gaza have killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and left much of the territory in ruins.
Palestinian medical officials do not say whether those killed by Israeli forces are militants or civilians, but say women and children make up more than half the fatalities. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which is allied with Hamas, began firing rockets into Israel on October 8 2023, drawing retaliatory air strikes.
The conflict dramatically escalated in September with a wave of Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his senior commanders. Israel launched a ground operation into southern Lebanon earlier this month.
The Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching for casualties in the wreckage of a house destroyed by an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon on Sunday when a second strike left four paramedics with concussion and damaged two ambulances.
It said the rescue operation had been co-ordinated with UN peacekeepers, who informed the Israeli side.
Israeli forces have repeatedly fired upon first responders and UN peacekeepers since the start of the ground operation. The military has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to ferry fighters and weapons, without providing evidence. Lebanon’s Health Ministry denies the allegations.
At least 2,255 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the conflict, including more than 1,400 people since September, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, which also does not say how many were Hezbollah fighters.
At least 54 people have been killed in the rocket attacks on Israel, nearly half of them soldiers.
Iran, which supports Hezbollah and Hamas, launched around 180 ballistic missiles at Israel to avenge the killing of Nasrallah, an Iranian general who was with him, and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, who died in an explosion in Iran’s capital in July that was widely blamed on Israel.
