’87 dead or missing’ after Israeli strikes on northern Gaza Strip

Israeli strikes on multiple homes in the northern Gaza Strip overnight and into Sunday have left at least 87 people dead or missing, the territory’s Health Ministry said.

It said another 40 people were injured in the strikes on the town of Beit Lahiya, which was among the first targets of Israel’s ground invasion nearly a year ago.

The strikes came as the United States 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 October 1.

The US 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 sputtered 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”.

Among the dead were two adults and their four children, and a woman, her son and daughter-in-law and their four children, according to Raheem Kheder, a medic. He said the strike flattened a multi-storey building and at least four neighbouring houses.

Mounir al-Bursh, director-general of the Health Ministry, said in a post on social media site X 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 gather 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, and has been encircled by Israeli forces since late last year, following Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7.

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

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians.

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