Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's defense chief warned that Tel Aviv's response to a recent attack by Iran would be "lethal" and "surprising" as the Israeli military continues its attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
On the diplomatic front, Netanyahu and President Joe Biden held their first call in seven weeks, with a White House press secretary saying the call included discussions on Israel's deliberations over how it will respond to Iran's attack.
"It was direct, it was productive,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of the 30-minute call.
The Israeli attacks in northern Gaza killed dozens of Palestinian people and threatened to shut down three hospitals over a year into the war, Palestinian officials and residents said.
The continuing cycle of destruction and death in Gaza comes as Israel expands a weeklong ground invasion in Lebanon and considers a major retaliatory strike on Iran following Iran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage, launched by Tehran after a series of Israeli provocations against it.
"Our strike will be lethal, precise and above all, surprising. They won’t understand what happened and how. They will see the results,” Defense Minister Gallant said during a speech to troops. "Whoever strikes us will be harmed and pay a price.”
Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel on Oct. 1 which the United States helped fend off. Biden has said he would not support a retaliatory strike on sites related to Tehran’s nuclear program.
In northern Gaza, there was heavy fighting in Jabaliya, an urban refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, where Israeli forces have carried out several major attacks. The entire north, including Gaza City, has suffered heavy destruction and has been largely isolated by Israeli forces since late last year.
Hezbollah claimed a rocket attack that killed two people in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. The town's acting mayor, Ofir Yehezkeli, said the two killed were a couple walking their dogs.
In Gaza, Jabaliya residents said thousands of people have been trapped in their homes since the operation began Sunday, as Israeli jets and drones buzz overhead and troops battle militants in the streets.
"It’s like hell. We can’t get out,” said Mohamed Awda, who lives with his parents and six siblings. He said there were three bodies in the street outside his home that could not be retrieved because of the fighting.
"The quadcopters are everywhere, and they fire at anyone. You can’t even open the window,” he told The Associated Press by phone, speaking over the sound of explosions.
Gaza's Health Ministry said it recovered 40 bodies from Jabaliya from Sunday until Tuesday, and another 14 from communities farther north. There are likely more bodies under rubble and in areas that can't be accessed, it said.
An airstrike in Jabaliya early Wednesday killed at least nine people, including two women and two children, according to Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the bodies. Strikes in central Gaza killed another nine, including three children, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, said an Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians near the Yemen Saeed hospital in Jabaliya had killed at least 16 people and wounded another 17. The casualties were taken to the Kamal Adwan hospital.
Jabaliya residents fear Israel aims to depopulate the north and turn it into a closed military zone or a Jewish settlement. Israel has blocked all roads except for the main highway leading south from Jabaliya, according to residents.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said it was evacuating seven schools being used as shelters and that only two of eight water wells in the camp are still functioning.
"We are concerned about the displacement to the south,” Ahmed Qamar, who lives in Jabaliya with his wife, children and parents, said in a text message. "People here say clearly that they will die here in northern Gaza and won’t go to southern Gaza.”
Fadel Naeem, the director of Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, said it had received dozens of wounded people and bodies from the north. "We declared a state of emergency, suspended scheduled surgeries and discharged patients whose conditions are stable," he told AP in a text message.
Israel’s offensive has gutted Gaza’s health sector, forcing most hospitals to shut down and leaving the rest only partially functioning.
Naeem said three hospitals farther north - Kamal Adwan, Awda and the Indonesian Hospital - have become almost inaccessible because of the fighting. The Gaza Health Ministry says the Israeli army has ordered all three to evacuate staff and patients. Meanwhile, no humanitarian aid has entered the north since Oct. 1, according to U.N. data.
Israel ordered the wholesale evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, in the opening weeks of the war, but hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have remained there. Israel reiterated those instructions over the weekend, telling people to flee south to a humanitarian zone where hundreds of thousands are already crammed into squalid tent camps. The country is notorious for targeting safe zones it tells civilians to take refuge in.
Israel's attacks have killed over 42,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. The Israeli offensive has also caused staggering destruction across the territory and displaced around 90% of the population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said Lebanon would meet the same fate as Gaza if its people did not rise up against Hezbollah.
An Israeli strike killed four people and wounded another 10 at a hotel sheltering displaced people in the southern Lebanese town of Wardaniyeh on Wednesday, Lebanon's Health Ministry said.
An Associated Press reporter in a nearby town heard two sonic booms from Israeli jets before the strike. Plumes of smoke rose from the building after the explosion.
In recent weeks Israel has waged a heavy air campaign across large parts of Lebanon. A series of strikes had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders.
The Israeli military said Wednesday that Hezbollah has fired more than 12,000 rockets, missiles and drones at Israel in the past year.
