DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — At least 39 people were killed by Israeli strikes in northern Gaza on Saturday as rescuers struggled to find survivors under the rubble, according to Palestinian and hospital officials.
Fadel Naem, director of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, told the Associated Press that more than three dozen bodies had arrived at the hospital. Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency group active in Gaza, said its emergency workers were excavating for survivors at the site of an attack in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, and had evacuated several dozen bodies from a building hit by an Israeli attack. strike in an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City.
Israel said on Saturday that its fighter jets struck two Hamas military sites in the Gaza City area, but gave no further details.
The deaths occur a day after at least 25 people were killed in attacks on camps and 50 injured near the southern city of Rafah. Israel said on Saturday it continued to operate in central and southern Gaza and pressed ahead with its invasion of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. Most have already fled the city, but the United Nations says nowhere in Gaza is safe and that humanitarian conditions are dire as families shelter in tents and cramped apartments without adequate food, water or medicine.
A separate Israeli attack Saturday in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon killed a member of the military wing of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or Islamic Group, a Sunni Muslim faction closely allied with Hamas, according to the group. The member was the seventh killed by Israeli attacks in Lebanon since the start of the war.
The Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, when Hamas militants who invaded southern Israel killed around 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage. Israel responded by bombing and invading the enclave, killing more than 37,400 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Also on Saturday, Israel’s army said an Israeli man was shot dead in the north West Bank city of Qalqilya, where Israeli forces shot dead two militants on Friday, the latest outbreak of violence in the territory since the Israel-Hamas war erupted.
At least 549 Palestinians in the territory have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which tracks the deaths. During the same period, Palestinians in the West Bank killed at least nine Israelis, including five soldiers, according to UN data.
Israeli citizens are prohibited from entering Qalqilya and other areas of the West Bank that are under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
In April, the death of a 14-year-old Israeli settler triggered an series of settler attacks in the Palestinian cities of the territory. The army said a Palestinian was later arrested in connection with the killing.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 12-year-old Palestinian boy died from his injuries after being shot by Israeli forces in Ramallah last week. Commenting on the shooting, the Israeli army said its forces stormed the al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah to arrest a suspect on Friday and then opened fire on a group of Palestinians who were stoning them.
Israel said on Saturday it was investigating a separate incident over the conduct of its soldiers after a video appeared online showing an injured Palestinian being transported on the hood of an Israeli armored car in the northern West Bank. The army said the man in the video was a wanted suspect injured during an exchange of fire between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces near the city of Jenin. The man was being transported to a nearby Red Crescent ambulance, he said. The army said the conduct in the video did not “conform with the values” of the army.
Anger across the country is growing over the government’s handling of the war in Gaza and the hostage crisis.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv calling for new elections and for the government to bring the hostages home. Among the families were the parents of Naama Levy, an Israeli soldier who completed 20 years in captivity.
