An Israeli attack on a five-story building housing displaced Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 34 people on Tuesday, more than half of them women and children, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
In a separate development, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it had appointed Sheikh Naim Kassem as its latest leader after killing Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike last month.
The group said in a statement that Hezbollah’s decision-making Shura Council chose Kassem, who has served as Nasrallah’s deputy leader for more than three decades, as its new secretary general.
Hezbollah vowed to continue Nasrallah’s policies “until victory.”
The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency services said another 20 people were wounded in the attack in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, near the Israeli border.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has been waging a large-scale operation in northern Gaza for more than three weeks, targeting what it says are pockets of Hamas militants who have regrouped there.
The dead included a mother and five children, several adults, and a second mother with six children, according to a preliminary casualty list provided by emergency services.
Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, director of the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, said he was overwhelmed by the wave of injured people from the attack.
Israeli forces raided medical facilities over the weekend, detaining dozens of medics.
The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked shelters for displaced people in recent months, saying it carried out precision strikes targeting Palestinian militants and trying to avoid harming civilians.
These attacks often kill women and children.
The military said it detained several Hamas militants in an attack on Kamal Adwan, the latest in a series of attacks 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 another wave of mass displacement in more than a year of fighting in the small coastal region.
Israel also severely limited aid to the north this month, prompting warnings from the United States that failure to facilitate greater aid efforts could lead to cuts in military aid.
Palestinians fear that Israel is carrying out a plan proposed by a group of former generals, who have suggested that the civilian population of the north be ordered to evacuate, aid supplies should be cut off, and anyone who remains should be treated as militants.
The military has denied it is carrying out the plan, while the government has not said clearly whether it is carrying out all or part of it.
On Monday, Israel’s parliament passed two laws that could prevent the UN agency for Palestinian refugees – Gaza’s biggest aid provider – from operating in the Palestinian territories.
It is the culmination of a long-running campaign against UNRWA, which Israel believes has been hacked by Hamas, a charge the agency denies.
The war began when Hamas-led militants invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping around 250.
About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israeli retaliatory strikes have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. About 90% of the population of 2.3 million have been displaced from their homes, often multiple times.