Displaced Palestinians walks through a tent camp in Muwasi, an area that Israel has designated as a safe zone, in Khan Younis southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

CAIRO — Israeli strikes in Gaza City and at a refugee camp killed more than 40 people, including 19 women and children, health officials said on Sunday, as several European countries and leading U.S. allies moved to recognize a Palestinian state.

Health officials at Shifa Hospital, where most of the bodies were brought, said the dead included 14 people killed in a strike late Saturday which hit a residential block in the southern side of the city. Health staff said a nurse who worked at the hospital was among the dead, along with his wife and three children.

Another strike that targeted a group of people in front of a clinic in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least eight Palestinians, according to the Al-Awda Hospital. The dead include four children and two women, the hospital said. Another 22 people were wounded, it said.

Israel did not comment on the strikes.

Drone strike

in Lebanon

In Lebanon, the Health Ministry said Sunday that an Israeli drone strike in the southern city of Bint Jbeil killed five people, among them three children, and two others were wounded. No further details were given.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.

Since Hezbollah and Israel’s monthslong war ended in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November, Israel has struck southern Lebanon almost daily in what they say are attacks to target the Lebanese militant group.

The Lebanese government has said that these strikes violate the ceasefire and hampers their efforts to gradually disarm the group.

Anti-war

protests

in Israel

The latest Israeli military operation, which began this week, further escalates a conflict that has roiled the Middle East and likely pushes any ceasefire further out of reach. The Israeli military, which has told Palestinians to leave, hasn’t given a timeline for the offensive, but there were indications it could take months. Israel says the operation is meant to pressure Hamas into freeing hostages and surrendering.

Ahead of the U.N. assembly, peace activists in Israel have hailed the planned recognition of a Palestinian state. On Sunday, a group of more than 60 Jewish and Arab organizations representing about 1,000 activists, including some veteran organizations promoting peace and coexistence, known as It’s Time Coalition, called for an end to the war, the release of the hostages and the recognition of a Palestinian state.

“We refuse to live forever by the sword. The UN decision offers a historic opportunity to move from a death trap to life, from an endless messianic war to a future of security and freedom for both peoples,” said the coalition in a video statement.

On Saturday night, tens of thousands of people in Israel protested, calling for an end to the war and a hostage deal.

Netanyahu says Palestinian state ‘will not happen’

On Sunday, Australia, Canada and the U.K. announced formal recognition of Palestinian statehood. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the move is intended “to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the announcement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the establishment of a Palestinian state “will not happen.” In an angry statement after the coordinated initiative from the Commonwealth nations was announced, he accused the foreign leaders of giving a “prize” to Hamas.

“It will not happen,” he said. “A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.”

Other prominent Western countries are preparing to recognize Palestinian statehood at the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday. Netanyahu said he would announce Israel’s response after a trip next week to the U.S., where he is to meet President Donald Trump at the White House.

Dire humanitarian crisis

In a statement Sunday, the military stated it killed Majed Abu Selmiya, who it said was a sniper for Hamas’ military wing and was preparing to carry out more attacks in the Gaza City area, without providing evidence.

Majed was the brother of the director of Shifa hospital, Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, who called the allegations a lie and said Israel was trying to justify the killing of civilians. Dr. Selmiya told The Associated Press that his brother, 57, suffered from hypertension, diabetes and had vision problems.

As the attacks continue, Israel has ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering in Gaza City to move south to what it calls a humanitarian zone and opened another corridor south of the city for two days this week to allow more people to evacuate.

Palestinians were streaming out of Gaza City by car and on foot, though many are unwilling to be uprooted again, too weak to leave or unable to afford the cost of moving.