Strikes on Gaza kill 18 and stabbing in Israel kills 2 as fears of wider war spike

TEL AVIV: Israeli strikes early Sunday killed 18 people in Gaza, including four who were sheltering in a tent camp for displaced Palestinians inside a hospital complex, while a stabbing attack carried out by a Palestinian killed two people in a Tel Aviv suburb.

Tensions have soared following nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and the killing of two senior militants in separate strikes in Lebanon and Iran last week. Those killings brought threats of revenge from Iran and its allies and raised fears of an even more destructive regional war.

A woman in her 70s and an 80-year-old man were killed in the stabbing attack, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service and a nearby hospital, and two other men were wounded. The police said the attack was carried out by a Palestinian militant, who was “neutralised.”

The rescuers said the wounded were found in three different locations, each about 500 metres (yards) apart. Police initially said they were searching for other suspects but later ruled out the possibility of there having been more than one assailant.

Israel has been bracing for retaliation after the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike in Lebanon and Hamas' top political leader in an attack in Iran's capital last week. Both targeted killings were linked to the ongoing war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas' October 7 attack into Israel.

In Gaza, an Israeli strike earlier on Sunday hit a tent camp housing displaced Palestinians in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, killing four people, including one woman, and injuring others, Gaza's Health Ministry said.

An Associated Press journalist filmed men rushing to the scene to help the wounded and retrieve bodies, while trying to extinguish the fire.

The Israeli military said it targeted a Palestinian militant in the strike, which it said caused secondary explosions, "indicating the presence of weaponry in the area.”

The hospital in Deir al-Balah is the main medical facility operating in central Gaza, and thousands of people have taken shelter there after fleeing their homes in the war-ravaged territory. A separate strike on a home near Deir al-Balah killed a girl and her parents, according to the hospital.

Another strike flattened a house in northern Gaza, killing at least eight people, including three children, their parents and their grandmother, according to the ministry. Another three people were killed in a strike on a vehicle in Gaza City, according to the Civil Defence — first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government.

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired at least five projectiles at Israeli communities near the border on Sunday, without causing casualties or damage, the military said.

An Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City on Saturday killed at least 16 people and wounded another 21, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which announced the toll on Sunday. Israel's military, which regularly accuses Palestinian militants of sheltering in civilian areas, said it struck a Hamas command center.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians, but the military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children. Gaza's Health Ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its tallies.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 people hostage in their surprise attack into southern Israel last October.

Israel's massive offensive launched in Gaza has killed at least 39,550 Palestinians, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were militants. Heavy airstrikes and ground operations have caused widespread destruction and displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

Hezbollah has regularly traded fire with Israel along the Lebanon border since the start of the war, in what the militant group says is aimed at relieving pressure on its fellow Iran-backed ally, Hamas. The continuous strikes and counterstrikes have grown in severity in recent months, raising fears of an even more destructive regional war.

Over 590 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most have been killed during Israeli raids and violent protests. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.