DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip early Sunday killed at least 19 people, Palestinian officials said, as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut in its widening war on Iran-allied militant groups across the region.

Israel has pummeled Lebanon with an unprecedented airstrike campaign over the last two weeks, killing over 1,400 people, injuring nearly 7,500 others and displacing more than one million people from their homes,

Eyewitnesses said the number of casualties could rise as the mosque was being used to house displaced people. The Israeli military said in a statement it “conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded in a structure that previously served as the ‘Shuhada al-Aqsa’ Mosque in the area of Deir al Balah”.

Palestinian medical officials say an apparent Israeli airstrike early Sunday killed at least 18 people in central Gaza

An apparent Israeli airstrike early Sunday killed at least 18 people in central Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said. The strike hit a mosque sheltering displaced people near the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah,

The Israeli military said its air forces struck Hezbollah fighters inside a mosque in southern Lebanon overnight, claiming the terrorists were operating a command center from the mosque. Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it launched rockets at an Israeli air base.