Israeli strikes in north Gaza leave 40 martyred, medics say

Cairo (Reuters): An Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabalia killed several people and wounded others on Sunday morning, Palestinian medics say, as Israeli forces stepped up their campaign in northern Gaza.

Medics said the new strike damaged several houses in Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, which has been the focus of an Israeli military offensive for more than three weeks.

Israel says its forces have returned to northern Gaza more than a year into the war with Hamas to root out the group's fighters who had regrouped there. It said on Friday that three of its soldiers were killed in combat in the north of the enclave.

The Israeli military said in a statement it has "eliminated over 40 terrorists" in the Jabalia area in the past 24 hours, as well as dismantling infrastructure and locating "large quantities of military equipment".

In addition, Israel said its forces had eliminated a "terrorist cell" during a close-quarter encounter in central Gaza.

Meanwhile, the death toll from an Israeli airstrike late on Saturday on a residential district in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya rose to 40 on Sunday morning, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.

The Israeli military said it had carried out "a precise strike using precise munitions on Hamas terrorists within a structure in the area of Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip. A number of terrorists have been hit in the strike."

It added that the high number of casualties mentioned in the media report did not align with the type of munitions used in the precision attack.

Israeli military strikes on the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza have so far killed around 800 people during a three-week offensive, the Gaza health ministry said.

Palestinian health officials said the ongoing Israeli aerial and ground offensive has crippled the healthcare system in northern Gaza and was blocking medical teams from reaching bombed sites.

The Civil Emergency Service announced two days ago that their operations were halted after Israel detained and wounded several of their personnel and bombed their only fire truck.

Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

The death toll from Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza is approaching 43,000, with the densely populated enclave in ruins.