An Israeli airstrike that hit several houses and a multi-storey residential building in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza caused dozens of casualties, doctors and officials said.
The Hamas media office said at least 73 people had been killed in the strike on Saturday. No official figures were immediately available from the health ministry, however Medway Abbas, a senior health ministry official, said the figures were accurate.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident but that the numbers issued by the Hamas media office were exaggerated. It said the figures did not align with its own information, the precise munitions used or the accuracy of the strike, which it said was directed at a Hamas target.
Palestinian health officials said rescue operations were being hampered by the cut-off of telecommunication and internet services for a second day.
Residents and medics on Saturday said Israeli forces had tightened their siege on Jabalia, the largest of the enclave’s eight historic camps, which it encircled by also sending tanks to the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and issuing evacuation orders to residents.
Israeli officials said evacuation orders were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied there was any systematic plan to clear civilians out of Jabalia or other northern areas.
It came as Benjamin Netanyahu’s house in the seaside town of Caesarea was hit by a drone on Saturday, causing superficial damage and no casualties.
The Israeli government said that one of the prime minister’s three homes was targeted by three drones, two of which were intercepted, and that neither Netanyahu nor his wife, Sara, were home at the time.
“The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake,” Netanyahu said in a statement, vowing that Iran and its proxies would “pay a heavy price”.
In Jabalia, residents said Israeli forces besieged several shelters housing displaced families before they stormed them and detained dozens of men. Footage on social media showed dozens of Palestinian men sitting on the ground next to a tank, while others were led by a soldier to a gathering site.
Residents and medical officials said Israeli forces were bombing houses and besieging hospitals, preventing medical and food supplies from entering to force them to leave the camp.
Health officials said they refused orders by the Israeli army to evacuate hospitals or leave the patients, many in critical condition, unattended.
“Hospitals in northern Gaza suffer from stark shortages of medical supplies and manpower and are overwhelmed by the number of casualties,” said Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital.
The United Nations’ top aid official said Palestinians were living through “unspeakable horrors” under siege by Israeli forces in northern Gaza and insisted that “these atrocities must stop”.
“In Jabalia, people are trapped under the rubble and first responders are blocked from reaching them,” the UN’s acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya said on X.
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli planes dropped leaflets over southern Gaza showing a picture of the dead Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar with the message “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza”, echoing language used by Netanyahu.
US vice-president Kamala Harris repeated her call for a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza and said it was important to seize the opportunity provided by the killing of Sinwar.
“This creates an opening that I believe we must take full advantage of – to dedicate ourselves to ending this war and bringing the hostages home,” the Democratic presidential candidate said on the campaign trail from Detroit.
The 7 October attack Sinwar planned on Israeli communities a year ago killed about 1,200 people, with another 253 dragged back to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent war has devastated Gaza, killing more than 42,500 Palestinians, with another 10,000 uncounted dead thought to lie under the rubble, Gaza health authorities say.
Reuters contributed reporting