‘At least 87 people dead or missing’ after Israeli strikes in northern Gaza

At least 87 people have been killed or are currently missing after Israeli strikes on multiple homes in the northern Gaza Strip took place overnight and into Sunday, the territory’s health ministry said.

The ministry said another 40 people had been injured in strikes on the town of Beit Lahiya – a place that was among the first targets of Israel’s ground invasion almost a year ago.

Two adults and their four children, as well as a woman, her son and daughter-in-law and their four children were among those killed, according to Raheem Kheder, a medic. That strike flattened a multistorey building and at least four neighbouring houses, he said.

The strikes come as the US is investigating an unauthorised release of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran, according to three US officials. A fourth US official said the documents appear to be legitimate.

The documents, attributed to the US Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency and marked “top secret”, indicate that Israel is moving military assets into place to carry out a military strike in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on 1 October.

America is urging Israel to press for a ceasefire in Gaza following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week. But neither Israel nor Hamas has shown any renewed interest in such a deal after months of negotiations came to a halt in August.

Iran supports Hamas and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, where a year of escalating tensions boiled over into all-out war last month. Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon at the start of October.

There was no immediate comment on the strikes in Beit Lahiya from the Israeli military, which said it is “continuing to operate across Gaza in both aerial strikes and ground operations”.

Mounir al-Bursh, director general of the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, said in a post on social media site X/Twitter that the flood of wounded from the strikes has compounded “an already catastrophic situation for the healthcare system” in northern Gaza.

Internet connectivity went down in northern Gaza late on Saturday and had not been restored by midday on Sunday – making it difficult to obtain information about the strikes.

Israel has been carrying out a major operation in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, also in northern Gaza, for the last two weeks. The military said it launched the operation against Hamas militants who had regrouped there.

The north has already suffered the heaviest destruction of the war so far, and has been encircled by Israeli forces since late last year, following Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October.

Israel ordered the entire population of the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, to evacuate to the south in the opening weeks of the war, and reiterated those instructions earlier this month.

Most of the population fled last year, but around 400,000 people are believed to have remained in the north. Palestinians who fled the north at the start of the war have not been allowed to return.

On 7 October 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into the country, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250.

According to the Palestinian health authorities, Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children.

The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90 per cent of its population of 2.3 million people.

Additional reporting by Associated Press