Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed 22 people, officials say, while a truck ramming near Tel Aviv injured dozens.

DEIR AL-BALA, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes in the northern Gaza Strip have killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said Sunday, as an Israeli offensive in the hard-hit and isolated north Gases it’s the third week and aid groups described a humanitarian disaster.

According to the Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom, a truck crashed into a bus stop near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, injuring dozens of people. The circumstances were not immediately clear, but Palestinians have carried out dozens of vehicle-ramming attacks over the years. The attack took place on a road near the headquarters of the Israeli spy agency Mossad.

Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader said Israel’s strikes on the country over the weekend “should neither be exaggerated nor minimized” but stopped short of calling for retaliation, suggesting Iran was carefully weighing its response to the attack.

On Saturday, Israeli warplanes attacked military targets in Iran in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that “the authorities must determine how to transfer the strength and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and take actions that serve the interests of this nation and country.”

The 85-year-old Khamenei’s comments on Sunday carefully laid out the idea that Iran is a major power in the Middle East, without directly calling for a new attack on Israel, which he alone would decide.

The shootings raised fears of a full-scale regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant proxies, which include Hamas and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion earlier this month after nearly a year low level conflict.

Gaza’s health ministry emergency service said 11 women and two children were among 22 killed when several houses and buildings were struck late Saturday in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya. The report said another 15 people were injured and that the death toll could rise. It lists the names of those killed, most of whom came from three families.

The Israeli military said it carried out a precision strike on militants inside a building in Beit Lahiya and took steps to avoid harming civilians. He disputed what he said were “figures published in the media” without elaborating or providing evidence in his favor.

Israel continues to carry out daily strikes on the Gaza Strip, despite it is waging an air and ground war with Hezbollah. Two people were injured after a drone loaded with explosives launched from Lebanon crashed into a building in an industrial zone in northern Israel, authorities said. An Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut sent flames and smoke into the air.

Red Cross describes ‘horrific circumstances’ in northern Gaza

Israel has been waging a massive air and ground offensive in the northern Gaza Strip since October 6, saying Hamas militants have regrouped there. Hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians fled to Gaza City. last wave of displacement in a year-long war.

Israel says its strikes in the Gaza Strip only target militants and blames Hamas for civilian casualties as militants fight in densely populated areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.

Aid groups have warned of a catastrophic situation in northern Gaza, which was the first target of Israel’s ground offensive and has already suffered worst destruction of the war. Israel severely limited the flow of basic humanitarian aid In recent weeks, the three remaining hospitals in the north of the country, one of which was attacked over the weekend, say they have been overwhelmed by waves of casualties.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Saturday said ongoing Israeli evacuation orders and restrictions on the entry of essential supplies into the north had left civilians in “appalling circumstances.”

“Many civilians are now unable to move, trapped by fighting, destruction or physical restrictions, and now lack access to even basic medical care,” it said.

Hospital reeling after Israeli raid that detained dozens of doctors

Israeli troops raided the Kamal Adwan hospital in the north of the country on Friday, detaining dozens of medical workers and causing extensive damage, according to the Health Ministry. Footage circulated online showing the courtyard bulldozed and the chambers looted. Israeli troops withdrew on Saturday.

The head of the World Health Organization said 44 male staff were detained at the hospital. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said only female staff, the hospital director and one male doctor were left to care for nearly 200 patients.

Among those detained and taken away was Dr. Mohamed Obeid, head of the orthopedic department at the nearby Al Auda Hospital, according to Al Auda Hospital. His whereabouts are unknown.

Throughout the year-long war between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces stormed and bombed a number of hospitals. including the largest medical facility in the sector, Shifa Hospital.. Israel accuses Hamas of using medical facilities throughout Gaza for military purposes. Hospital officials deny the accusations, saying the raids endangered sick and wounded civilians.

The war began when Hamas-led militants cut holes in Israel’s border wall on October 7, 2023, and suddenly entered southern Israel. They killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250. About 100 hostages are still in Gazaabout a third of whom are presumed dead.

The Israeli retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The offensive devastated much of the impoverished coastal territory and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people are huddled in squalid tent camps along the coast, and aid groups say famine is rampant.

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Magdi reported from Cairo and Krauss from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.

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