At least 22 people, mostly women and children, were killed in Israeli attacks in northern Gaza, Palestinian officials said on Sunday, as Israel’s offensive against the hard-hit and isolated region entered its third week and the UN secretary-general said as he called the plight of Palestinians there “unbearable.” Israel announced that it was targeting militants.

Separately, one person was killed and more than 30 people were injured when a truck crashed into a bus stop near Tel Aviv. Israeli police said the attacker was an Arab citizen of Israel. The collision occurred outside the military base and near the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

Meanwhile, in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month, Iran’s supreme leader said on Saturday that Israeli attacks on the country “should not be exaggerated or underestimated” and did not hold back from calling for retaliation. This was Israel’s first open attack on its arch-enemy.

This exchange of fire has raised fears of an all-out regional war that would pit Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant proxies; among them Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group. A year of low-level conflict.

Eight people were killed and 25 injured in two Israeli attacks on the southern Lebanon city of Sidon, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. One attack hit a residential building, according to footage shot by an Associated Press reporter.

The Israeli army announced that four soldiers, including a military rabbi, were killed in clashes in southern Lebanon, but did not provide details. It was stated that five other personnel were seriously injured. An explosive drone and projectile fired from Lebanon injured five people in Israel, officials said.

In his first public statement regarding the attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We have seriously damaged Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles against us.”

Satellite images showed damage to two secret Iranian military bases, one linked to work on nuclear weapons that Western intelligence agencies and nuclear inspectors say was stopped in 2003, the other linked to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iran announced Sunday that a civilian had been killed, without providing any details. It was previously stated that four people working in the military air defense were killed.

Iran’s 85-year-old religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, “It is up to the authorities to determine how the power and will of the Iranian people will be transferred to the Israeli regime and to take steps that will serve the interests of this nation.” and the country.” Khamenei will make the final decision on how Iran will react.

Later Sunday, protesters disrupted Netanyahu’s speech at a nationally televised ceremony honoring the victims of last year’s Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. People shouted “Shame on you,” forcing Netanyahu to stop his speech. Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for the failures that led to the attack and his failure to bring the remaining hostages home yet.

An Israeli official said that Mossad chief David Barnea went to Qatar for talks on a ceasefire and the release of hostages. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose details.

In Ramat Hasharon, northeast of Tel Aviv, a truck crashed into a bus and some people were trapped under the vehicles as Israelis returned to work after a week-long holiday.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said six of the injured were in serious condition. Ichilov Medical Center reported one death.

Police spokesman Asi Aharoni told reporters that the attacker had been “neutralised”, without saying whether he was dead or not.

Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group praised the suspected attack but did not claim it.

Palestinians have committed numerous stabbings, shootings and car ramming attacks over the years. Tensions have risen since the start of the war in Gaza, with Israel carrying out regular military raids on the occupied West Bank that have resulted in hundreds of deaths. Most appear to have been militants killed during clashes with Israeli forces, but Palestinians and surrounding civilians participating in violent protests were also killed.

The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said 11 women and two children were among the 22 people killed in attacks on several houses and buildings in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya late Saturday. It was stated that 15 more people were injured and the death toll may increase.

The Israeli military said it had launched an offensive against the militants and disputed what it said were “figures published by the media”, without providing evidence on its own account.

Israel has been carrying out a major air and ground offensive in northern Gaza since early October, claiming that Hamas militants have regrouped there. Hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians fled to Gaza city in the latest wave of displacement of the year-long war.

The civil defense first response service, which operates under the Hamas-led government in Gaza, said that many bodies were found after Israel’s air strike on a school in the Shati refugee camp in the west of Gaza city on Sunday.

Aid groups warned that a catastrophic situation could occur in the north of Gaza, which was the first target of Israel’s ground operation and suffered the heaviest destruction of the war. Israel has severely limited the inflow of essential humanitarian aid in recent weeks, and the three remaining hospitals in the north (one of which was raided over the weekend) say they are overwhelmed by waves of casualties.

In a statement released by his spokesman, the UN secretary-general accused Israeli authorities of refusing most food and medicine aid amid “distressing levels of death”.

On Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Israel’s evacuation orders and restrictions on the entry of essential supplies had left the civilian population in “terrible conditions”.

The war began when Hamas-led militants opened holes in Israel’s border wall and raided southern Israel on October 7, 2023. They killed approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped approximately 250 others. Nearly 100 hostages still in GazaAbout a third are believed to have died.

Israel’s retaliatory strike killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing any evidence.

The offensive devastated much of Gaza and displaced nearly 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people have crammed into squalid tent camps, and aid groups say hunger is widespread.

Bentov, Goldenberg, Magdy and Krauss write for the Associated Press. Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Magdy from Cairo and Krauss from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. AP reporters Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Jon Gambrell in Dubai and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran contributed to this report.