Dozens of people were killed Sunday in airstrikes in northern Gaza and Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been waging a major offensive for more than a month.
advertisementIsraeli airstrikes killed at least 20 people in the town of al-Mat, north of Beirut and far from southern and eastern Lebanon, where Hezbollah militants are based. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said six more people were injured. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
At least 17 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a refugee shelter in a refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip’s Jabaliya city, the director of a nearby hospital that received the bodies said.
Dr. Fadel Naim, director of Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Hospital, said nine women were among the dead and that the death toll was likely to rise as rescue efforts continued.
The Israeli military said it targeted locations where the militants were operating in Jabaliya, without providing evidence. It said details about the strike were being reviewed.
A separate strike at a house in Gaza City on Sunday killed Wael al-Kour, a Hamas government minister, his wife and three children, civil defense emergency workers said. government.
Israeli forces have surrounded and largely isolated Jabaliya and the nearby villages of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun over the past month, allowing only limited humanitarian aid. Hundreds of people have been killed since airstrikes began on October 6, and tens of thousands have been evacuated to the nearby Gaza Strip.
On Friday, experts on a panel that monitors food security said famine may be imminent or already occurring in the north. The Biden administration’s ultimatum to Israel to increase the level of humanitarian aid allowed to Gaza or risk possible restrictions on U.S. military funding is growing increasingly desperate as the deadline approaches.
The northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, was the first target of Israeli ground forces and suffered the heaviest damage during the 13-month war triggered by Hamas’ attacks on southern Israel. As elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, Israel sent troops again after repeated operations, saying Hamas had regrouped.
The military said it was only targeting militants hiding among civilians in homes and shelters. Israeli attacks often result in the deaths of women and children.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles toward Israel after the war broke out in the Gaza Strip in solidarity with fellow Palestinian and Iranian-backed militant group Hamas.
Israel retaliated, and a series of escalations over several months led to full-scale war in September. At this time, Israel launched a large-scale attack, killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders.
Israel then attacked deeper inside Lebanon, and Hezbollah expanded its rocket fire from northern to central Israel. According to the Ministry of Health, the civil war has killed more than 3,000 people in Lebanon and more than 70 in Israel.
In a video purporting to show the aftermath of Sunday’s strike in Al-Maat, about 40km north of Beirut, people were seen pulling the body of a young girl from the rubble. The house collapsed, and several nearby vehicles were also damaged.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants broke through a hole in the border wall and entered southern Israel. They killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250. There are still about 100 hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip. It is estimated that about a third of them died.
More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, local health authorities said. Health authorities said that more than half of the dead were women and children, without distinguishing between civilians and militants.
advertisementIsraeli bombing and ground invasions have reduced vast swathes of Gaza to ruins, and about 90% of the population of 2.3 million have become refugees at various times. Hundreds of thousands of people live in crowded tent camps with few public services and no idea when they will return home or rebuild.
Ceasefire talks brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have repeatedly stalled since early this year, as have parallel efforts by the United States and other countries to stop the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Qatar, which has served as Hamas’ main mediator, suspended its efforts last weekend and said it would “resume only when the parties demonstrate their will and seriousness to end the brutal war and ongoing suffering of civilians.”
