Updates: ‘Horrific massacre’ as Israeli forces kill 35 people in north Gaza

For insight on how Iranians were jolted awake by the sound of explosions as Israel attacked, read here.

For more on the conditions of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza after the pullout of Israeli forces, see here.

And to better understand Iran and Israel’s attack and defence capabilities, read here.

But before that, here are the latest developments:

• At least 35 Palestinians in besieged northern Gaza were killed in an attack on a residential area that destroyed several buildings in Beit Lahiya with the death toll expected to rise.
• The Israeli army arrested at least 30 medical staff when soldiers stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital, its director told Al Jazeera.
• Israeli warplanes attacked Iran from Iraqi airspace, Iran’s mission to the UN says, blaming the United States for what it called “complicity”.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel chose the targets it attacked in Iran based on its “national interests”, not what was dictated by the United States.
• The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran’s nuclear infrastructure was not hit by the Israeli attacks.
• Hezbollah ordered residents of 25 communities in northern Israel to “evacuate immediately” in a reversal from the usual Israeli army orders to Lebanese civilians.
• Vice President Kamala Harris said it’s “the strong perspective of the United States that there must be de-escalation” between Israel and Iran.

The World Health Organization chief warned of a disastrous situation in besieged northern Gaza with “intensive military operations unfolding around and within healthcare facilities”.

“The situation in northern Gaza is catastrophic,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that “a critical shortage of medical supplies, compounded by severely limited access, are depriving people of life-saving care”.

He highlighted Kamal Adwan, northern Gaza’s last functioning hospital, which was stormed by Israeli forces on Friday. Israeli troops left early Saturday after arresting 30 healthcare staff.

Tedros said that Gaza’s Health Ministry informed the WHO, which temporarily lost contact with its staff at the hospital, that the siege had ended. “But it came at a heavy cost,” he said.

After Israel’s attack, Iran’s chief of the armed forces warned that his country “reserves the right to respond at an appropriate time”.

Major-General Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, also emphasised “the need for a sustained ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon to prevent the killing of innocent and defenceless people”.

“The US government – which plays a central role in fully supporting the Zionist regime’s criminal actions that destabilize the region – is warned to contain this illegal and illegitimate regime to prevent further escalation and insecurity in the region,” said Mousavi in a statement.

“It should avoid deeper involvement in the quagmire created by the occupying regime, which endangers innocent lives, especially in Gaza and Lebanon.”

Commercial satellite imagery shows that Israeli air strikes hit buildings Iran used for mixing solid fuel for ballistic missiles, which could be a major blow to its ability to mass-produce such weapons.

The judgements were reached by David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security research group, and Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at CNA, a Washington, DC think tank, the Reuters news agency reports.

Both said Israel struck Parchin, a massive military complex near Tehran. Israel also hit Khojir, according to Eveleth, a sprawling missile production site near Tehran.

Eveleth said the Israeli strikes may have “significantly hampered Iran’s ability to mass produce missiles”.

Iran’s military chief said earlier that only a few radar stations suffered minor damage in the attack, and defence systems shot down most of the “light” missiles Israel launched.

Israel launched air strikes against several Iranian military targets, saying it was in response to what Israel called months of continuous attacks from Iran.

Tehran said the damage was limited. Israel has stepped up its attacks against Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria and Iran.

Now, the Iranian leadership is threatening to retaliate. Could this cycle of violence lead to a broader regional conflict?

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian offered his condolences to the families of troops killed in Israeli attacks, saying they sacrificed their lives to defend their homeland.

“Enemies of Iran should know these brave people are standing fearlessly in defence of their land and will respond to any stupidity with tact and intelligence,” Pezeshkian said in a statement on X.

At least four soldiers were killed in a wave of Israeli attacks across the country aimed at Iranian military targets.

The Israeli army issued a warning for Lebanese residents to evacuate several buildings in the Burj al-Barajneh and Hadath areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

“You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests against which the [Israeli military] will operate in the near future,” said the army on X.

Since Israel stepped up its military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon in mid-September, it has often called on residents to evacuate areas in the south of the capital – and strikes soon thereafter.

Israeli forces have withdrawn from Kamal Adwan Hospital after detaining dozens of medics and some patients, and causing widespread damage to one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza.

The medical facility is in disarray after it was raided and shelled during Israel’s three-week attack on the north.

“The smell of death has spread around the hospital,” Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals at Gaza’s Health Ministry, told Al Jazeera.

Israeli troops destroyed the few remaining medical supplies during their raid to prevent the medics from saving the wounded, he added.

Read the full story here.

As we’ve been reporting, multiple Israeli air attacks destroyed residential buildings in Gaza’s northern town of Beit Lahiya, killing at least 35 people, according to witnesses. The death toll is expected to rise with bodies buried in the debris.

There’s been no immediate Israeli comment. Last week, Israel’s army attacked another area of the town leaving at least 87 people dead or missing under the debris.

Beit Lahiya is a city in the north of the Gaza Strip close to Jabalia and Beit Hanoon. All three have come under severe attack by Israeli forces over the past three weeks.

The Civil Defence agency also said its crews retrieved the body of one person and two wounded victims after a attack on a residential home in the al-Nafaq area, north of Gaza City.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who hopes to succeed President Biden by winning the November 5 US presidential election, says it’s “the strong perspective of the United States that there must be de-escalation” between Israel and Iran.

Beni Sabti, an Iran expert at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies, said the Israeli strike appeared designed to give Tehran an opportunity to avoid further escalation.

“We see that Israel wants to close this event, to pass this message to Iran that it is closed and we don’t want to escalate it,” he said.

Israel attacked Iran and said its objectives have been achieved. Its military said the strikes were precise and warned Tehran against further escalation.

But what if Iran responds? And could the two sides be on a path to a full-blown confrontation?

The Israeli army arrested at least 30 medical personnel when soldiers stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the director of Gaza’s Health Ministry Dr Munir al-Bursh told Al Jazeera.

The raid took place after Israeli tanks shelled the compound of the hospital, the last remaining functioning medical facility in the north, which now has no medical staff to tend to the steady stream of incoming wounded.

The Israeli military besieged the medical facility on Friday during a three-week siege of the northern part of the enclave that has killed hundreds of Palestinians and forcibly displaced tens of thousands.

The humanitarian organisation operating in Gaza denounced the Israeli military’s arrest of Mahmoud Lubbad, a staff member and the nursing director at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, along with many other medics.

“MedGlobal calls on global leaders, humanitarian organisations, and the public to demand an immediate cessation of all attacks on healthcare workers and to uphold essential protections for medical personnel operating in conflict zones,” it said in a statement.

The organisation highlighted the death of Ibrahim Abu Safia, the teenage son of Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safia, MedGlobal’s lead physician in Gaza.

Dr Abu Safia’s son was killed by Israeli aircraft in Jabalia refugee camp.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog hailed the United States as a “true ally” of Israel following the deadly air strikes on Iran.

Applauding Israel’s attack on Iran, Herzog said, “I especially wish to thank our great friend the USA for being a true ally, and for the overt and covert cooperation,” he said in a statement without elaborating.

“Our capabilities that were demonstrated and the goals that were achieved were very important for establishing the security of the state of Israel and the defence of its citizens,” Herzog added.

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

We haven’t seen any official Israeli commentary on the siege and assault of northern Gaza that has gone on for more than 20 days.

What we have seen are posts on social media by individual soldiers celebrating what they’re doing, tauntingly posting photos of civilians escaping under fire. Or men who have been stripped down to their underwear and taken to undisclosed locations. Or even worse, soldiers celebrating as they burn down homes in Beit Lahiya and Jabalia.

The Israeli military insists all the allegations made by the UN and observers on the ground of the Israeli army preventing medical and humanitarian assistance from going in and targeting civilians are false despite the overwhelming evidence.