DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Two separate Israeli strikes killed at least 13 people, including women and children, in Gaza on Saturday, Palestinian medical officials said, as Israel announced the first aid delivery in weeks battered by war. northern Gaza.

One of the strikes hit a school-turned-shelter in the Tufah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, killing at least six people, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. Two local journalists, a pregnant woman and a child were among the dead, the ministry said. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a militant belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, without providing evidence or further details.

Seven other people were killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent in the southern town of Khan Younis where displaced people were sheltering, according to Nasser Hospital. Two women and a child were said to be among the dead. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the explosion.

COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian aid to Gaza, said on Saturday that 11 aid trucks containing food, water and medical equipment had reached the northern tip of the enclave, including the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya, on Thursday. It is the first time aid has reached the enclave’s far north since Israel began a new military campaign there last month.

But not all the aid reached the agreed points, according to a spokesman for the UN’s World Food Programme, who was involved in the delivery process. In Jabaliya, Israeli troops stopped one of the convoys heading to nearby Beit Lahiya and ordered supplies to be unloaded, Alia Zaki said.

The announcement comes days before a US deadline for Israel to improve aid deliveries to Gaza. Experts said there is a high probability that famine is imminent in parts of northern Gaza.

Israel’s new offensive focuses on Jabaliya, a densely populated refugee camp where Israel says Hamas has regrouped. Other areas affected by the new campaign include Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, located just north of Gaza City.

The UN estimates that tens of thousands of people remain in the area. Earlier this week, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said there were no ambulances or emergency crews currently operating north of Gaza City.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli military has struck several schools and tent camps, filled with tens of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders. The conflict has left 90 percent of Gaza’s Palestinians displaced, according to UN figures.

The military has continually accused Hamas of operating from Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including schools, UN facilities and hospitals. Contested narratives about the use of schools and hospitals go to the heart of the 13-month conflict.

In July, Israeli airstrikes hit a girls’ school in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, killing at least 30 people sheltering inside. The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas command center used to direct attacks against its troops and store “large quantities of weapons”.

More than a year of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza it has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children. The war started after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing approximately 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapping another 250.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

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