Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 22, officials say, while truck rammed near Tel Aviv injures dozens

RAMAT HASHARON, Israel (AP) — Israeli strikes in northern Gaza killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said Sunday, in an Israeli offensive against the hard-hit and isolated north. entered the third week and aid groups described a humanitarian disaster. Israel said it targeted the militants.

In another incident, a truck plowed into a bus stop near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, injuring 35 people, according to first responders. Israeli police described it as an attack and said the attacker was an Arab citizen of Israel. The ramming happened near the headquarters of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.

Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader said Israel’s strikes on the country over the weekend “should not be exaggerated or downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for retaliation, suggesting Iran was carefully weighing its response to the attack.

on saturday Israeli warplanes attacked military targets in Iran in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

The exchange of fire raised fears of a global regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its warring allies, including Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. where Israel launched a ground invasion earlier this month after nearly a year of low-level conflict.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that four soldiers, including a military rabbi, were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, without giving details. It is noted that five more servicemen were seriously injured. An explosive drone and projectile fired from Lebanon injured five people in Israel on Sunday, authorities said.

Netanyahu says strikes on Iran have achieved Israel’s goals

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the strikes had caused “serious damage” to Iran and had achieved all of Israel’s objectives.

“The Air Force has struck all over Iran. We have seriously damaged Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles aimed at us,” Netanyahu said in his first public comments on the strikes.

Satellite images showed the damage two secret Iranian military basesone related to nuclear weapons work that Western intelligence agencies and nuclear inspectors say was halted in 2003, and the other related to Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, said that “the authorities must determine how to transfer the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and take measures that serve the interests of this nation and country.”

Khamenei will make any final decision on how Iran responds.

Later on Sunday, protesters disrupted Netanyahu’s speech at a national ceremony commemorating the victims of the Hamas attack on southern Israel last year. People shouted “Shame on you” and created an uproar, forcing Netanyahu to stop his speech. Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for the failures that led to the attack and hold him responsible for not yet bringing home the rest of the hostages.

A truck attack in Israel injured dozens of people

In the city of Ramat Hasharon, northeast of Tel Aviv, a truck crashed into a bus at a bus stop as Israelis were returning to work after a week’s holiday, leaving people trapped under cars. In addition to being near the Mossad headquarters and a military base, the bus stop is also near a central highway interchange.

Israel’s rescue service, Magen David Adom, reported that six of the injured were in critical condition.

Asi Aharoni, a spokesman for the Israeli police, 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 alleged attack but did not claim responsibility.

There have been numerous stabbings, shootings and car attacks by Palestinians over the years. Tensions have skyrocketed since the start of the Gaza war, as has Israel regular military raids on the occupied West Bank which left hundreds dead. Most of them appeared to be militants killed in firefights with Israeli forces, but Palestinians participating in violent protests and civilian bystanders were also killed.

The military said there was another attack near a checkpoint in the West Bank, in which a suspect tried to ram soldiers with his car and then tried to stab them before being killed. It is reported that no military personnel were injured.

The Red Cross describes “appalling conditions” in northern Gaza

The emergency services of the Gaza Health Ministry said 11 women and two children were among the 22 killed in Saturday night’s strikes on several houses and buildings in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya. Another 15 people were reportedly injured and the death toll could rise. It listed the names of those killed, who came mainly from three families.

The Israeli military said it struck the militants in a compound in Beit Lahia and took measures to avoid harming civilians. She contested what she called “figures published by the media,” without elaborating or providing evidence in her favor.

Israel has been waging a massive air and ground offensive in northern Gaza since October 6, saying Hamas militants have regrouped there. Hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians fled to Gaza City the last wave of displacement in the year’s war.

Aid groups have warned of a catastrophic situation in northern Gaza, which was the first target of an Israeli ground offensive and has already suffered the worst destruction of war. Israel significantly limited the flow of basic humanitarian aid in recent weeks, and the three remaining hospitals in the north – one of which was ransacked over the weekend – say they have been overwhelmed by waves of wounded.

On Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said ongoing Israeli evacuation orders and restrictions on the import of essential goods into the north had left civilians in “horrendous circumstances”.

“Many civilians are currently unable to move, trapped by fighting, destruction or physical limitations, and now do not have access to even basic medical care,” it said.

The war began when Hamas-led militants punched holes in Israel’s border wall and unexpectedly invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023. They killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250. About 100 hostages are still in Gazaabout a third of whom are believed to be dead.

According to the local Ministry of Health, more than 42,000 Palestinians died in response to Israel. In its count, the ministry did not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but said more than half of the dead were women and children. Israel claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants without providing evidence.

The offensive devastated much of the impoverished coastal area and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into squalid tent camps along the coast, and aid groups say the famine is unstoppable.

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

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