DEIR AL-BALAH: Israeli rescue services said almost 40 people were wounded in a drone strike in the central city of Binyamina on Sunday, three of them critically. The Hezbollah militant group was blamed for one of the most serious strikes to land in Israel in a year of war.
Israel's advanced air-defense systems mean that it's rare for so many people to be hurt by drones or missiles. Israeli media reported that two drones were launched from Lebanon, and Israel's military said one was intercepted.
It was not immediately clear who was hurt, military or civilians, or what was hit.
It was the second time in two days that a drone has struck in Israel. On Saturday, during the Israeli holiday of Yom Kippur, a drone struck in a suburb of Tel Aviv, causing damage but no injuries.
The strike came on the same day that the United States announced it would send a new air-defense system to Israel to help bolster its protection against missiles.
Israel has extended its war to Lebanon and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month, though it has not said how or when. Iran has said it will respond to any Israeli attack.
At least 2,255 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the conflict, including more than 1,400 people since September, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.
A year into its recent war on Gaza, Israel has killed at least 42,000 Palestinians including more than 17000 children, 11000 women, more than 1000 health care workers and 174 journalists. On Saturday, an Israeli military attack on a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed a family of eight including children.
"They were safe, while he was sleeping, and he and all his children died," said the man's brother, Mohammad Abu Ghali. Women stroked the body bags, in tears.
Bodies rot in the streets in northern Gaza
In northern Gaza, Israeli air and ground forces have been attacking Jabaliya refugee camp, which dates back to the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestinians surrounding Israel's creation.
Israel has ordered the full evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 people remain in the north after a mass evacuation ordered in the war's opening weeks. Palestinians fear Israel intends to permanently depopulate the north to establish military bases or Jewish settlements there.
The United Nations says no food has entered northern Gaza since Oct. 1.
The military confirmed that hospitals were included in evacuation orders but said it had not set a timetable and was working with local authorities to facilitate patient transfers.
Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the Gaza Health Ministry's emergency service, said the bodies of a "large number of martyrs" remain uncollected from the streets and under rubble.
"We are unable to reach them," he told the AP, saying dogs are eating some remains.