Israel airstrike on Gaza mosque kills 19

Photo: Palestinians search for survivors and bodies in the rubble of a mosque destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

An Israeli strike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip early Sunday killed at least 19 people, Palestinian officials said, as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut in a widening war with Iran-allied militant groups across the region.

Displaced people were sheltering at the mosque that was struck near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. A further four people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town.

The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.

An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead from the strike on the mosque were all men.

Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza a year after the group’s attack on Israel, and has opened a new front in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with Israel along the border since the war in Gaza began. Israel has also vowed to strike Iran itself after Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel last week.

The widening conflict risks drawing in the United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel, as well as U.S.-allied Arab countries that host American forces. Iran-allied militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have already joined in with long-distance strikes on Israel.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, announced a new air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, home to a densely populated refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It circulated photos and video footage showing a column of tanks heading toward the area.

Israeli forces encircled Jabaliya as warplanes struck militant sites inside, the military said. Over the course of the war, Israel has carried out several large operations there, only to see militants regroup.

Israel reiterated its call, from the opening weeks of the war, for the complete evacuation of northern Gaza. Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in the heavily destroyed north after earlier Israeli warnings that sent around a million fleeing to the south.

“We are in a new phase of the war,” the military said in leaflets dropped over the area. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.”

Palestinian residents reported heavy Israeli strikes across northern Gaza. The Civil Defense — first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government — said several homes and buildings had been hit and they were not able to reach them because of the bombardment.

Residents posted about the airstrikes and mourned their relatives on social media. Imad Alarabid said in a Facebook post that an airstrike on his home in Jabaliya killed a dozen family members, including his parents. Saeed Abu Elaish, a Health Ministry medic, said he was wounded and bleeding.

“Pray for us,” he wrote on Facebook.

Hassan Hamd, a freelance TV journalist whose footage had aired on Al Jazeera and othr networks, was killed in artillery shelling on his home in Jabaliya. Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera reporter in northern Gaza, confirmed his death.

The military says it has expanded the so-called humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, urging people to head there. Hundreds of thousands of people have already sought refuge in sprawling tent camps there with little in the way of food, water or toilets. Israel has carried out strikes in the humanitarian zone against what it says are militants hiding among civilians.

Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were fighters, but says a little more than half were women and children.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack and took another 250 hostage. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) —

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