400 Gazans killed in two-week Israeli assault

Israel's military operation in northern Gaza has killed over 400 people in two weeks, civil defence agency says.

MIDEAST-GAZA:

Gaza's civil defence agency said on Saturday that a sweeping Israeli military operation has killed more than 400 people in two weeks in the territory's north, where Israel kept hammering militant targets while fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hamas ally Hezbollah has vowed to intensify attacks on Israel weeks into an all-out war that erupted on September 23, launching on Saturday rocket barrages at Israel's north, where rescuers said one man was killed by shrapnel.

According to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a drone attack from Lebanon targeted his residence in the coastal town of Caesarea, though the family were not there at the time and there were no injuries.

The latest attacks come as Hamas, Hezbollah and allied Iran-backed groups in the region have vowed to keep fighting after Israeli troops killed the Palestinian movement's leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, more than a year into the war triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.

Analysts said Sinwar, accused of masterminding the October 7 attack on Israel, was pivotal to ending the Gaza war and securing the release of Israeli hostages.

Israel, vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in northern Gaza, launched a major air and ground assault on October 6, tightening its siege on the war-battered area and sending tens of thousands of people fleeing.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that "we have recovered more than 400 martyrs from the various targeted areas in the northern Gaza Strip", including Jabalia and its refugee camp, since the Israeli operation began.

The actual death toll may be higher, Bassal told AFP, as "there are dozens of bodies scattered in the streets of Jabalia".

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the civil defence agency's reports out of Gaza, including that an overnight air raid on Jabalia killed 33 people.

The violence has dashed hopes Sinwar's death on Wednesday might bring the war closer to an end.

"We always thought that when this moment arrived... our lives would return to normal," 21-year-old Gazan Jemaa Abu Mendi said.

"But unfortunately," Mendi said, "the war has not stopped, and the killings continue unabated."

The unprecedented Hamas attack last year that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Out of 251 hostages taken on October 7, 97 are still held in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's campaign to crush Hamas and bring back the hostages has killed 42,519 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers reliable.

Israel has faced mounting criticism over the civilian toll and lack of food and aid reaching Gaza, where the UN has warned of famine.

As fighting raged on in northern Gaza, witnesses told AFP that air strikes continued to pound the area during the day.

Medics said Israeli forces were shelling the Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza. The military reported troops operating near the facility but said "no intentional fire" was directed at it.

The Israeli army said it had killed "dozens of terrorists" in the operation since October 6, which aid agencies warned was leading to a fresh humanitarian crisis.

"Another 20,000 people were forced to flee Jabalia camp" on Friday, said the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.