Israeli air strike kills 20 in Gaza, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials say

An Israeli air strike in northern Gaza has killed at least 20 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said on Tuesday, as Israel wages a nearly month-long air and ground operation in what was already the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory.

The strike late on Monday hit a home where several displaced families were sheltering in the town of Beit Lahiya, near the border with Israel, according to Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of the recently raided and barely functioning Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the casualties.

The dead included eight women and six children, according to a list provided by the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service. Separate strikes elsewhere in Gaza early on Tuesday killed another 10 people, according to health officials.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israel launched the offensive in the north after saying Hamas militants had regrouped there. The army has returned to several areas of Gaza multiple times after previous operations, as Hamas continues to carry out hit-and-run attacks on troops and fire occasional rockets into Israel.

The military has ordered the complete evacuation of Beit Lahiya, the nearby town of Beit Hanoun and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, and has allowed almost no humanitarian aid into the area for over a month. That has drawn rebukes from the Biden administration, which has warned that US laws might force it to curb military aid to Israel if more aid is not allowed in.

Tens of thousands of people have fled to nearby Gaza City in the latest wave of displacement within the besieged territory. Around 90 per cent of the population of 2.3 million have fled during the war, often multiple times.