Israel kills scores in Gaza as drone launched at Netanyahu house

All of northern Gaza's three hospitals are completely out of service, Al Jazeera reports, following weeks of attacks and sieges.

“We cannot count the number of those killed. The numbers are terrifying,” the official added.

The Indonesian, al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern Gaza have been subject to Israeli attacks and forced evacuation orders in over the weeks.

European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell said Saturday the killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar opened a 'new perspective' for a ceasefire in Gaza.

"Certainly after the killing of Yahya Sinwar a new perspective is open and we have to use it in order to reach a ceasefire, to release the remaining hostages and to look for a political perspective," Borrell told journalists on the sidelines of a G7 defence summit.

At least 42,519 people have been killed and 99,637 wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023, the Health Ministry in Gaza said on Saturday.

19 Palestinians were killed and 91 wounded in the last 24-hour period, the ministry added.

The Israeli army said at least 115 projectiles were fired on Saturday from Lebanon targeting the country amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The projectiles were fired mainly into northern Israel, with sirens blaring across the region at regular intervals. AFP compiled the figure of projectiles based on a series of statements released by the Israeli army on Saturday.

Israel is accusing Iran of "trying to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior official told Channel 12, after a drone reportedly launched from Lebanon targeted his home in the north Israel town of Caesarea.

Israel's attacks in Lebanon and Gaza are pushing Iran to take "legitimate steps", Turkey's foreign minister said on Saturday, in an apparent show of support for Tehran's October 1 missile attack on Israel.

"Israel's aggressive stance is forcing Iran to take legitimate steps," Hakan Fidan said at a joint press conference in Istanbul with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi.

Hezbollah said it fired rockets on Saturday towards a region north of Israel's Haifa in response to Israeli attacks on its strongholds in southern Lebanon.

"The large rocket salvo" came in retaliation for Israeli attacks on south Lebanon villages, Hezbollah announced after the Israeli army said a barrage of projectiles was fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, with sirens blaring at regular intervals.

Health authorities in Gaza said Israeli forces surrounded and shelled the Indonesian Hospital in the territory's northern town of Beit Lahia at dawn on Saturday.

"Israeli tanks have completely surrounded the hospital, cut off electricity and shelled the hospital, targeting the second and third floors with artillery," said the facility's director, Marwan Sultan.

"There are serious risks to medical staff and patients."

In a statement, Gaza's health ministry also said Israel had targeted the upper floors, adding there were "more than 40 patients and wounded in addition to the medical staff" present.

"Heavy gunfire" towards the hospital and its courtyard had sparked a "state of great panic" among patients and staff, it added.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Hamas was alive and will survive despite the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar in an Israeli military operation in Gaza.

"His loss is certainly painful for the resistance front" against Israel, "but it will not end at all with the martyrdom of Sinwar", Khamenei said.

The Palestinian Islamist movement "Hamas is alive and will remain alive", he said in a statement.

Sinwar "was the shining figure of resistance and struggle", Khamenei said in his first remarks on Sinwar since he was killed on Wednesday.

"He stood with unwavering determination against the cruel and aggressive enemy and slapped them with tact and courage," he added.

"He left behind the irreparable blow of October 7, 2023 as his legacy in the history of this region, and then he soared with honour and pride to the ascension of the martyrs."

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, responding to comments by US President Joe Biden, said on Saturday anyone who knows "how and when Israel will attack Iran" should be held accountable.

Araghchi said on X: "Anybody with knowledge or understanding of 'how and when Israel was going to attack Iran', and/or providing the means and backing for such folly, should logically be held accountable for any possible causality."

Speaking to reporters at the end of a visit to Berlin on Friday Biden said he had an understanding of how and when Israel was going to retaliate against missile attacks by Iran.

At least 11 people were killed in Israeli strike on a home in central Gaza's al-Maghazi refugee camp, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA said on Saturday, adding that there are still missing people under the rubble.

 A drone was launched towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in the northern Israeli town of Caesarea on Saturday, his spokesman said, adding that the premier was not in the vicinity and there were no casualties.

Earlier, the Israeli military said that a drone was launched from Lebanon and that it had hit a building. It was not immediately clear what the building was.

Two more drones that crossed into Israeli territory were intercepted, the military said.

There were no casualties reported, according to the Israeli ambulance service and police said explosions had been heard in Caesarea, coastal town where Netanyahu has a holiday home.

Lebanese authorities said two people were killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday in Jounieh, north of Beirut, in the first strike on the area since Hezbollah and Israel started trading fire last year.

The health ministry said an "Israeli enemy raid" hit a car in Jounieh, with Lebanese state media saying the attack occurred on a key highway linking the capital to the country's north.