Palestinian officials say at least 22 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in northern Gaza

Israeli attacks on the northern Gaza Strip have killed at least 22 people, most of them women and children, Palestinian officials say.

Gaza Health Ministry emergency services said 11 women and two children were killed in Saturday’s attacks in the northern city of Beit Lahiya.

It said another 15 people were injured and the death toll could rise.

In a separate project, a truck crashed into a bus stop near Tel Aviv, injuring 35 people as Israelis returned to work after a week’s vacation.

The attack in Ramat Hasharon took place near the headquarters of the Israeli spy agency Mossad and a military base.

The Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom reported that the condition of the six injured was serious.

Israeli police spokesman Asi Aharoni told reporters the attacker had been “neutralized,” but did not say whether the attacker was dead.

Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group praised the alleged attack but did not say they were behind it.

The Israeli military said another attack took place near a West Bank checkpoint in which the suspect tried to ram soldiers with his vehicle and then stab them before he was killed. He added that no soldiers were injured.

In Beit Lahiya, the Israeli army said it carried out a precision attack against militants at the facility and took steps to avoid harming civilians. She questioned what she described as “the numbers published by the media.”

Israel has been conducting an air and ground offensive in northern Gaza for three weeks after saying Hamas fighters had regrouped there.

Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled to Gaza City in the latest wave of displacement in the year-long war.

Israel carries out attacks across Gaza every day, even at war with the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday that continued Israeli evacuation orders and restrictions on the delivery of essential supplies to the north have left civilians in “appalling circumstances.”

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

On Saturday, Israeli warplanes attacked Iran – which supports both Hamas and Hezbollah – in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

The growing conflicts have raised fears of an all-out regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant proxies, which also include Houthi rebels in Yemen and armed groups in Syria and Iraq.

Israel says its attacks on Gaza only target militants and blames Hamas for civilian casualties because militants are fighting in densely populated areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.

The war began when Hamas-led militants punched holes in Israel’s border wall and entered southern Israel in October 2023 in a surprise attack. They killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, about a third of them are believed to be dead.

According to the local Ministry of Health, more than 42,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli retaliatory offensive. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but states that more than half of those killed were women and children.

The offensive devastated much of the impoverished coastal territory and often repeatedly displaced around 90% of its population. Hundreds of thousands of people are crowded into squalid tent camps along the coast, and aid groups say famine is rampant.