Israel Pounds Gaza, Killing 22

Israeli strikes on northern Gaza early Sunday killed at least 22 people. Israeli officials said the assault targeted militants, but Palestinian authorities reported that mostly women and children were killed.

The offensive in the isolated north entered its third week and aid groups said locals are suffering a humanitarian catastrophe, the Associated Press reported.

In Israel a truck rammed into a bus stop near the city of Tel Aviv close to the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency, wounding 35, the AP reported.

The violence followed Israeli retaliatory strikes on Iranian military targets on Saturday.

Satellite images revealed that the Israeli strikes damaged secretive military facilities, including a building used in Iran’s defunct nuclear weapons program, and other buildings where fuel is mixed for Iranian missiles, researchers told Reuters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the strikes “severely harmed” Iran and achieved all of Israel’s goals.

“The air force struck throughout Iran. We severely harmed Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed toward us,” Netanyahu said in his first public comments on the strikes.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the Israeli strikes should “not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” but stopped short of calling for retaliation, AP noted.

“It is up to the authorities to determine how to convey the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and to take actions that serve the interests of this nation and country,” said the 85-year-old leader.