Tel Aviv, Israel — Israeli strikes killed 18 people in Gaza early Sunday, including four Palestinians in a tent camp inside a hospital complex, while a knife attack by a Palestinian killed two people in a suburb of Tel Aviv.
Tensions have risen after Almost 10 months of war in Gaza and the murder last week of a top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and The top political leader of Hamas in Iran. Iran and its allies blamed Israel and threatened retaliation, raising fears of an even more destructive regional war.
“The State of Israel is in a multi-front war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting, asserting that the country was prepared for any defense or attack scenario.
Jordan’s foreign minister was doing a strange trip to Iran as the United States and its Arab allies try to avoid a broader conflict. Hamas says it has already started talks about electing a new leader.
The stabbing attack in Tel Aviv killed a woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service and a nearby hospital, and two other men were wounded. Police said the attack was carried out by a Palestinian militant, who was “neutralized.”
In Gaza, an Israeli strike hit a camp of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, killing four people, including a woman, and wounding others, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. An Associated Press journalist filmed men rushing to the scene to recover the bodies as they tried to extinguish the fire.
The Israeli military said it had targeted a Palestinian militant in the attack, which it said caused secondary explosions, “indicating the presence of weaponry in the area.”
The Deir al-Balah hospital is the main medical facility operating in central Gaza, as many others in the territory are no longer operating. According to the hospital, another attack on a house near Deir al-Balah killed a girl and her parents.
Another attack leveled a house in northern Gaza, killing at least eight people, including three children, their parents and grandmother, according to the Health Ministry. Three more people were killed in an attack on a vehicle in Gaza City, according to Civil Defense first responders operating under the Hamas-led government.
Palestinian militants in Gaza fired at least five projectiles at Israeli communities near the border without causing any casualties or damage, the military said.
An Israeli attack on Saturday on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed at least 16 people and wounded 21 others, according to the Health Ministry, which announced the death toll on Sunday. Israel’s military, which regularly accuses Palestinian militants of taking refuge in civilian areas, said it attacked a Hamas command center.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage.
Israel’s massive offensive in response has killed at least 39,580 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Intense airstrikes and ground operations have caused widespread destruction and displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
Hezbollah and Israel have continued to exchange fire along the border with Lebanon since the war began, and the severity has increased in recent months. The militant group says its goal is to relieve pressure on Iran-backed ally Hamas. A growing number of countries, including the United States, are encouraging their citizens to leave Lebanon.
In the occupied West Bank, more than 590 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the war in Gaza began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most have died during Israeli raids and violent protests. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, and the Palestinians want all three for their future state.
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Magdy reported from Cairo.
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