The picture shows fire and smoke billowing from the site of an Israeli air strike around tents for displaced people inside the walls of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah on Monday — AFP GAZA, Oct 14 (Reuters): Israeli forces widened their raid into northern Gaza and tanks reached the north edge of Gaza City, pounding some districts of the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood and forcing many families to leave their homes, residents said.
In the early hours of Monday, an Israeli air strike killed three people and wounded 40 others when it hit some tents of displaced Palestinians inside Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip city of Deir Al-Balah, where a million people were sheltering, medics said.
Footage circulated on social media, which Reuters couldn't immediately verify, showed several tents were set ablaze as some Palestinians tried helplessly to put out the fire.
The Israeli military said it struck militants operating from a command centre inside the compound, accusing Hamas of using civilian facilities such as hospitals for military purposes, which Hamas denies.
Residents said Israeli forces had effectively isolated Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Beit Lahiya in the far north of the enclave from Gaza City, blocking access between the two areas except upon permission for families willing to heed evacuation orders and leave the three towns.
Nine days into a major Israeli operation in northern Gaza, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israeli strikes had killed around 300 Palestinians there. It said Israel's bombardment of civilian houses and displacement shelters was intended to force residents to leave Gaza once and for all, which Israel denies.
Hezbollah drones kill
four Israeli soldiers
The United Nations said Israeli tanks had burst into its base in southern Lebanon on Sunday, the latest accusation of Israeli violations against peacekeeping forces, as Hezbollah unleashed a deadly "swarm of drones" on an Israeli military camp.
Israel disputed the UN account and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the peacekeepers to withdraw, saying they were providing "human shields" for Iran-backed Hezbollah during an upsurge in hostilities.
Meanwhie, Lebanese officials say at least nine people have been killed in an Israeli strike in Aitou in northern Lebanon. However, the Lebanese Red Cross says 18 were killed.
This would be the first time Israel has targeted the Christian-majority northern region in a year of hostilities. Israel is yet to comment.
The UNIFIL peacekeeping force said two Israeli Merkava tanks destroyed the main gate of a base and forcibly entered before dawn on Sunday. After the tanks left, shells exploded 100 metres (yards) away, releasing smoke which blew across the base and sickened UN personnel, it said in a statement.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah militants had fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli troops, wounding 25 of them. The attack was very close to a UNIFIL post and a tank helping evacuate the casualties under fire then backed into the UNIFIL post, it said.
"It is not storming a base. It is not trying to enter a base. It was a tank under heavy fire, mass casualty event, backing up to get out of harm's way," the military's international spokesperson Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
In a statement, the military said it used a smokescreen to provide cover for the evacuation of the wounded soldiers but its actions posed no danger to the UN peacekeeping force.
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