DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — At least 20 people, mostly women and children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza, Palestinian officials said on Tuesday, as Israel was already conducting an almost month-long air and ground operation in the most isolated and heavily damaged part of the region. .

The strike, which took place late Monday, hit a house sheltering many displaced families in the town of Beit Lahiya, near the Israeli border, according to Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, which was recently raided and where the injured were found.

The Israeli military said it targeted a weapons storage facility where the militant operated and that “numerous steps have been taken to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.”

According to the list provided by the emergency service of the Gaza Ministry of Health, eight of the dead were women and six were children. Another 10 people were killed in separate attacks elsewhere in Gaza early Tuesday, according to health officials.

Israel launched an offensive in the north after saying Hamas militants had regrouped there. Hamas continues to launch hit-and-run attacks on soldiers and occasionally fire rockets at Israel, while the military has returned to various parts of Gaza multiple times following previous operations.

The military ordered the complete evacuation of Beit Lahiya, the nearby town of Beit Hanoun, and the city’s Jabaliya refugee camp, allowing virtually no humanitarian aid into the area for more than a month. That prompted rebukes from the Biden administration, which warned that U.S. law could force it to restrict military aid to Israel if more aid is not authorized.

The UN estimates 100,000 people remain in the area, following the latest wave of displacement in the besieged area after tens of thousands of people fled to nearby Gaza City since the start of Israel’s offensive. Nearly 90% of the population of 2.3 million fled, often repeatedly, during the 13-month war.

Three hospitals serving the area are largely inaccessible due to fighting, and ambulances have also stopped working. Israeli soldiers raided Kamal Adwan Hospital last month, saying Hamas militants were sheltering there, but Palestinian health officials denied these claims.

The attack sparked fears among Palestinians that Israel was implementing a surrender-or-starve plan for northern Gaza, proposed by former generals, in which civilians would be ordered out of the area, aid would be cut off, and everyone else would be considered combatants.

The Israeli military has denied receiving such orders, but the government has not said whether it would agree to some or all of the plan.

A separate wave of Israeli attacks killed 10 people, including four children and two women, early Tuesday, Palestinian officials said.

According to the Health Ministry’s emergency service, an attack hit a house in Gaza City’s Tufah district, killing two children and their parents. It was stated that two other children were also injured.

In the central town of Zuweida, an Israeli airstrike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family, killing four people, including a mother and her two children, according to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. Another attack hit a house in Deir al-Balah, killing two people, the hospital said. A journalist from the Associated Press counted the bodies in the hospital morgue.

The Israeli military says it is targeting only militants and accuses them of hiding among civilians. Individual strikes that kill mostly women and children are rarely commented on.

The latest war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 250 hostages. There are currently nearly 100 captives in Gaza, and approximately one-third of them are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children.

Shurafa and Magdy write for the Associated Press. Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.