39 killed in Israeli strikes across North Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH (GAZA STRIP): At least 39 people were killed by Israeli air strikes across northern Gaza on Saturday, according to Palestinian and hospital officials.

Fadel Naem, director of the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, said more than three dozen bodies arrived at the hospital. The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency group active in Gaza, said it pulled approximately the same number of bodies from a building hit by an Israeli strike in an eastern neighbourhood of Gaza City. Israel said Saturday that its fighter jets struck two Hamas military sites in the Gaza City area but did not elaborate further. The deaths come a day after at least 25 people were killed in strikes.

Israel said Saturday that it was continuing to operate in central and southern Gaza and has pushed ahead with its invasion of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from fighting elsewhere.

A separate Israeli strike Saturday in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley killed a member of the military wing of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, a Sunni Muslim faction closely allied with Hamas, according to the group. The member was the seventh killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the war began.