Israeli strikes early yesterday killed 18 people in Gaza, including four who were sheltering in a tented camp for displaced Palestinians inside a hospital complex, while a Palestinian militant fatally stabbed two people in a Tel Aviv suburb.
Tensions have soared following nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and the killing of two senior militants in separate strikes in Lebanon and Iran last week. Those killings brought threats of revenge from Iran and its allies and raised fears of an even more destructive regional war.
A woman in her 70s and an 80-year-old man were killed in the stabbing and two other men were wounded, Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service and a nearby hospital said.
Photo: AFP
The police said the attack was carried out by a Palestinian militant, who was “neutralized.”
The rescuers said the wounded were found in three different locations, each about 500m apart.
Police initially said they were searching for other suspects, but later ruled out the possibility of there having been more than one assailant.
Israel has been bracing for retaliation after the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in an attack in Iran’s capital last week.
In Gaza, an Israeli strike earlier yesterday hit a tented camp housing displaced Palestinians in the courtyard of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, killing four people, including a woman, and injuring others, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said.
An Associated Press journalist filmed men rushing to the scene to help the wounded and retrieve bodies, while trying to extinguish a fire.
The Israeli military said it targeted a Palestinian militant in the strike, which it said caused secondary explosions, “indicating the presence of weaponry in the area.”
The hospital in Deir al-Balah is the main medical facility operating in central Gaza, and thousands of people have taken shelter there after fleeing their homes.
A separate strike on a home near Deir al-Balah killed a girl and her parents, the hospital said.
Another strike flattened a house in northern Gaza, killing at least eight people, including three children, their parents and their grandmother, the health ministry said.
Another three people were killed in a strike on a vehicle in Gaza City, said the Civil Defense — first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government.
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