At least 39 people killed in Israeli attacks in northern Gaza Strip

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At least 39 people were killed in Israeli attacks in northern Gaza on Saturday, Palestinian and hospital officials said, as rescue workers desperately searched for survivors under the rubble.

Fadel Naem, director of Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, told reporters that more than three dozen bodies had arrived at the hospital.

Israel said on Saturday that its fighter jets had attacked two Hamas military bases in the Gaza City area, but did not elaborate.

The deaths came a day after at least 25 people were killed and 50 wounded in attacks on tent camps near the southern city of Rafah. Israel said on Saturday it was continuing its operations in central and southern Gaza and pressing ahead with the invasion of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge from fighting elsewhere.

Most have now fled the city, but the United Nations says that nowhere in Gaza is safe anymore and the humanitarian situation is catastrophic, with families living in tents and cramped apartments without adequate food, water and medical care.

Another Israeli attack in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley on Saturday killed a member of the military wing of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya (Islamic Group), a Sunni Muslim faction closely allied with Hamas, the group said. The member was the seventh to be killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the war began.

The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, when Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage. Israel responded by bombing and invading the enclave, killing more than 37,400 Palestinians there, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.

Nearly 600 Palestinians killed in the West Bank

Also on Saturday, the Israeli army said an Israeli was shot dead in the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya, where Israeli forces shot dead two militants on Friday. It is the latest outbreak of violence in the area since the war between Israel and Hamas.

At least 549 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the area since the war began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which tracks the killings. During the same period, Palestinians in the West Bank killed at least nine Israelis, including five soldiers, according to the UN.

Israeli citizens are prohibited from entering Qalqilya and other areas of the West Bank under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Anger is growing across the country over the government’s handling of the war in Gaza and the hostage crisis. On Saturday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv, demanding new elections and the government’s release of the hostages.