DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes killed at least 32 people in southern Gaza overnight as the military launched ground operations in the hard-hit city of Khan Younis, Palestinian medical officials said Wednesday.
Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war, even as attention has shifted to Lebanon, where Israel is battling Hezbollah, and to Iran, which launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel late Tuesday.
The European Hospital in Khan Younis said it received the bodies after heavy Israeli airstrikes and ground operations in the city. It said the dead include several women and children, and that dozens of people were wounded.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dr. Saleh al-Hams, head of the nursing department at the European Hospital, said dozens of dead and wounded people were brought to his facility and the Nasser Hospital starting at around 3 a.m. Some of the wounded were in critical condition, meaning the death toll could rise, he said.
He said Israel had carried out heavy airstrikes as its ground forces staged an incursion into three neighborhoods in Khan Younis. Israel carried out a massive offensive earlier this year that left much of Gaza’s second largest city in ruins.
Over the course of the war, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to areas of Gaza where they have previously fought Hamas and other armed groups as the militants have regrouped.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on Oct. 7 and took around 250 hostage. Around 100 are still in captivity in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say a little more than half were women and children. The military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The offensive is among the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history. It has flattened wide areas of Gaza and displaced 90% of its 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for a series of devastating blows Israel has landed in recent weeks against Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began.
Israelis scrambled for bomb shelters as air raid sirens sounded and the orange glow of missiles streaked across the night sky.
The Israeli military said it intercepted many of the incoming Iranian missiles, though some landed in central and southern Israel. Two people were lightly wounded by shrapnel, and a Palestinian was killed by a projectile in the occupied West Bank, but it was unclear where it was fired from.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate against Iran, which he said “made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it.”
President Joe Biden said his administration is “fully supportive” of Israel and that he’s in “active discussion” with aides about what the appropriate response should be.
Iran said it would respond to any violation of its sovereignty with even heavier strikes on Israeli infrastructure.
Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies backed by Iran, and each escalation has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel.
Israel and Iran have fought a shadow war for years but only traded fire directly for the first time in April, when Iran launched an aerial attack to avenge the killing of two of generals in an apparent Israeli airstrike on its embassy complex in Damascus. Few of its projectiles reached their targets, with many shot down by a U.S.-led coalition.
Israel appeared to have responded with a smaller strike of its own before both sides stepped back from the brink.
Iran said it fired Tuesday’s missiles as retaliation for attacks that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian military. It referenced Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, both killed in an Israeli airstrike last week in Beirut. It also mentioned Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader in Hamas who was assassinated in Tehran in a suspected Israeli attack in July.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday morning to address the escalating situation in the Middle East.
Israel is meanwhile carrying out what it says are limited ground incursions into southern Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire pounded southern Lebanese villages on Tuesday, and Hezbollah responded with a barrage of rockets into Israel.
Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for tens of thousands of its citizens displaced from homes near the Lebanon border to return. Hezbollah has vowed to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza with Hamas.
Israel has warned people in southern Lebanon to evacuate to the north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and much farther than the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of a U.N.-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war. The border region has largely emptied out over the past year as the two sides have traded fire.
Israeli strikes have killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
Hezbollah is a widely seen as the most powerful armed group in the region, with tens of thousands of fighters and an arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles. The last round of fighting in 2006 ended in a stalemate, and both sides have spent the past two decades preparing for their next showdown.
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Magdy reported from Cairo.
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