AP / November 2, 2024
Israel targets north-eastern Lebanon and Beirut, while bombardment of Gaza raises fears of worsening humanitarian conditions for civilians.
Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 52 people and wounded scores more, the Lebanese health ministry said, while rockets fired from Lebanon fell on Israel on Saturday.
Israeli police said 19 people were injured before dawn on Saturday in the central town of Tira. Three projectiles crossed into Israel from Lebanon, Israel’s military said, and some were intercepted.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said two of those injured were in moderate condition from the attack, and the others had lesser injuries. A photo the service released showed damage to what appeared to be an apartment building.
In Lebanon’s north-eastern Beqaa Valley, rescuers searched for survivors after airstrikes killed nine people and brought down a building that had housed 20 people in the town of Younine. Further Israeli strikes killed 12 people in the town of Amhaz and 31 others across at least a dozen villages, bringing the total death toll to 52, the health ministry said. The bombardment left 72 people wounded, the ministry added. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the strikes.
The latest violence comes against the backdrop of a renewed diplomatic push by Joe Biden’s administration, days before the US presidential election, to reach temporary ceasefire deals.
In central Gaza, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli aerial attacks that began on Thursday, hospital officials said.
Israel has stepped up its offensive against remaining Hamas fighters in Gaza, bombarding areas in the north and raising fears of worsening humanitarian conditions for civilians still there.
In Lebanon, Israel has broadened its strikes in recent weeks to bigger urban hubs, like the town of Baalbek, home to 80,000 people, after initially targeting smaller border villages in the south, where Hezbollah conducts operations.
Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles from Lebanon into Israel in solidarity with Hamas immediately after the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza. The year-long cross-border fighting boiled over to full-blown war on 1 October, when Israeli forces launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
In Lebanon’s capital, Israeli planes pounded Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight and early Friday for the first time in four days. The Israeli military, which warned residents to evacuate at least nine locations in Dahiyeh, said it hit Hezbollah weapons manufacturing sites and command centres.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, more than 2,897 people have been killed and 13,150 wounded in Lebanon, the health ministry said, not including Friday’s toll.
Overall, UN agencies estimate that Israel’s ground invasion and bombardment of Lebanon has displaced 1.4 million people. About 60,000 residents of Israel’s northern communities near Lebanon have also been displaced for more than a year.
Hezbollah has continued firing rockets into northern Israel, with projectiles launched from Lebanon on Thursday crashing into agricultural areas and killing seven people, including four Thai farm workers.
Israel on Friday also pressed on with its bombardment of Gaza, where a barrage of airstrikes hit central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp and killed at least 21 Palestinians – including an 18-month-old and his 10-year-old sister – according to health officials at the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Israeli strikes also hit a motorcycle in Zuwaida and a house in Deir al-Balah, killing four more people, hospital officials said, bringing Friday’s overall death toll in Gaza to 25.
Israel said it targeted Hamas infrastructure and a militant operating near the Nuseirat refugee camp, but did not comment on the strikes outside the camp. It said it was aware of reports of civilian casualties and was investigating. In a separate announcement, the army said an airstrike on a vehicle in Gaza’s southern town of Khan Younis killed a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, Izz al-Din Kassab, and his assistant, Ayman Ayesh.
Hamas confirmed the death of Kassab. Israel alleged he was a coordinator between militant groups in Gaza.
As American diplomats left the region after a flurry of meetings with Israeli officials, there were no signs of a breakthrough on a ceasefire in either Lebanon or Gaza.
On Friday, Hamas doubled down on its longstanding demands for a permanent ceasefire and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, saying Israel offered only a temporary pause in the war and an increase in aid shipments in the latest negotiations. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s Gaza war since 7 October 2023 when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza.
