AT LEAST 20 Palestinians were killed by an Israeli air attack on northern Gaza, officials said today.

The victims, mostly women and children, were killed when the Israeli military attacked a home where several displaced families were sheltering in the town of Beit Lahiya, near the border with Israel, according to Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of the barely functioning Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the casualties.

The Israeli military claimed that it targeted a weapons storage facility from which a militant had operated, and, without elaborating, said “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.”