At least 10 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in an Israeli attack on a school sheltering displaced persons in the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza city, the Hamas-run state media office reported.
Hamas said the attack came hours after two strikes in the occupied West Bank that killed nine militants, including a local Hamas commander.
The Israeli military said the first of two air strikes on the West Bank hit a vehicle near the town of Tulkarem, targeting a militant group that was planning an attack.
A Hamas statement said one of those killed was a commander of its Tulkaram Brigade, while its ally Islamic Jihad claimed the other four killed in the attack were its fighters.
Hours later, a second air strike in the area targeted another group of militants who opened fire on troops during a counter-terrorism operation in Tulkaram, the Israeli military said.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA said four people were killed in the attack, and Hamas said all nine people killed in two Israeli attacks on the West Bank were fighters.
Violence in the West Bank was on the rise before the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and has escalated since, with frequent Israeli raids into the territory, which is one of the areas where Palestinians want a state.
There has also been an increase in anti-Israel street attacks by Palestinians.
Gaza attacks
In the Gaza Strip, a school sheltering displaced persons in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City was attacked, the Hamas-run state media office reported.
The Israeli military said the school was being used as a Hamas command center to hide militants and manufacture weapons. Hamas has denied Israeli accusations that it operates from civilian facilities such as schools and hospitals.
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli attacks killed six people in a house south of Rafah and two others in Gaza City, Gaza health officials said.
The Israeli military said its forces attacked militants in Rafah and elsewhere and destroyed Hamas infrastructure.
At least 39,550 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military operation in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials. The offensive began on October 7 following a Hamas-led assault on southern Israel that left 1,200 people dead and 250 abducted, according to Israeli figures.
A high-level Israeli delegation made a brief visit to Cairo on Saturday in an effort to restart Gaza ceasefire talks, Egyptian airports authority sources said. The delegation returned to Israel a few hours later, Israeli media reported.
Any breakthrough is unlikely given the heightened regional tensions following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, the top military commander of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran.
Haniya’s death is one of a series of assassinations of senior Hamas leaders as the Gaza war enters its 11th month, raising concerns that the conflict in Gaza is spiraling into a wider Middle East war.
Both Hamas and Iran have accused Israel of killing Haniyeh and have vowed to retaliate. Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for the killing.
Italy on Saturday urged Iran to exercise restraint.
“Italy calls on Iran to exercise restraint and contribute to the de-escalation of tensions in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East,” the foreign ministry said, adding that the message had been passed on to the Iranian ambassador in Rome.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)