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Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 26 people, including one attack on a house where displaced people were sheltering in the isolated north, killing 19, Palestinian health chiefs said.

The war between Israel and Hamas rages on with no end in sight, even after Israel reached a ceasefire deal with Lebanese Hezbollah and international attention shifted to the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Both the outgoing and incoming US administrations have said they hope to end the war before Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, but months of ceasefire talks have repeatedly stalled.

The strike that killed 19 people took place in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, near the border with Israel, according to the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the bodies.

Hospital records show that among the dead was a family of eight, including four children, their parents and two grandparents.

Another attack in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, according to Awda Hospital.

The dead included two children, their parents and three relatives.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The military has said it is trying not to harm civilians and accuses militants of hiding among them, endangering their lives.

Militants in central Gaza fired four projectiles at Israel on Wednesday, two of which were intercepted, the army said. The other two fell in open areas and there were no reports of casualties.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250 people, including children and older adults.

About a hundred hostages are still missing in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. They say women and children make up more than half of the dead, but make no distinction between fighters and civilians in their numbers. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Thousands more Palestinians have gone missing during the war, some after encounters with Israeli forces.

Israel has been waging a renewed offensive against Hamas in the isolated and heavily destroyed northern Gaza since early October. Troops have surrounded Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the Jabaliya urban refugee camp, virtually eliminating humanitarian aid and ordering tens of thousands of people to flee to nearby Gaza City.

Israeli officials have said the three communities are largely deserted, but the United Nations humanitarian agency said it believes around 65,000 to 75,000 people remain there, with little access to food, water, electricity or health care.

Experts have warned that the north could face famine.

Humanitarian aid to the north has been largely blocked for the past 66 days, the UN added.

Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters on Tuesday that civilians trying to survive across Gaza are facing an “utterly devastating situation.”

She pointed to the breakdown of law and order and looting that has left the UN and many aid agencies unable to deliver food and other humanitarian supplies to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in need.

Ms. Kaag said she and other U.N. officials continue to repeatedly ask Israel to grant access for convoys to northern Gaza and elsewhere, to allow commercial goods to enter, to reopen the Rafah crossing from Egypt in the south and to allow dual-use goods to approve use.

The Israeli military says it is allowing enough humanitarian aid and blames U.N. agencies for failing to distribute it. Large amounts of aid have gathered just inside Gaza’s borders.

U.N. officials say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and ongoing fighting are making it difficult to access and distribute aid, and have repeatedly called for a ceasefire.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have been mediating talks between Israel and Hamas for almost a year, and diplomats say these efforts have recently gained momentum.

But Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are returned, and has said Israel will maintain a lasting military presence in some areas.