Death toll from Israeli strikes in central Gaza rises to 25, while 13 killed in Lebanon

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Death toll from Israeli strikes in central Gaza Strip rose to 25, including five children, as more bodies were recovered, while officials said 13 people were killed in airstrikes in Lebanon on Friday.

Sixteen people were initially reported killed in two strikes on Thursday in the central Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, but Al-Aqsa Hospital officials said bodies continued to be brought in.

In all, the hospital said they received 21 dead from the strikes, including some transferred from Awda hospital, where they were brought the day before.

One of the strikes killed an 18-month-old boy and his 10-year-old sister — the children’s mother was missing Friday, while the father was killed by an Israeli airstrike four months ago, the family told The Associated Press at Aqsa Hospital . .

The strikes on a motorcycle in Zuwaida and a house in Deir al-Balah on Friday killed four more people, hospital officials said, bringing the total toll to 25.

The Israeli military told the AP it had hit a Hamas infrastructure site and a militant operating in the Nuseirat area, but did not comment on the other strikes.

It said it was aware of reports of civilian casualties and was investigating.

of Israel A heavy offensive on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians from October 7, 2023, say Gaza health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. More than half of the dead are said to be women and children.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said on Friday that a total of 55 people had been killed in the past 24 hours and that 196 others had been injured.

Israel began bombing Gaza after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, when the militants killed around 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages back into Gaza.

Despite increasing pressure from the United States and others in the international community for a cease-fire in both Gaza and Lebanon, the Israeli air force launched several strikes in Lebanon on Friday.

In an attack in the northeastern Baalbek-Hermel region, eight people were killed when a house was hit in the village of Amhaz and two others were killed in the village of Taraya, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

In recent days, Israel has stepped up its airstrikes on the northeastern city of Baalbek and nearby villages as well different parts of southern Lebanon.

Three other people were killed and five wounded in an airstrike on the outskirts of Qamatiyeh, southeast of Beirut, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

An AP journalist who visited the scene said the strike was closer to the nearby village of Ein al-Rummaneh, adding that it caused minor damage to a first-floor apartment.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the strikes “in the Beirut area” targeted Hezbollah weapons manufacturing sites, command centers and other infrastructure.

Israeli planes also struck Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnightdestroying dozens of buildings in several neighborhoods, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

The early Friday airstrikes on Dahiyeh came after a four-day hiatus in which no airstrikes were reported in the suburb. No casualties were immediately reported.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said more than 2,800 people had been killed and 13,000 wounded since October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel almost daily, drawing retaliation.

Jens Laerke of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there had also been a “wave of displacement” in recent days as tens of thousands of people fled following warnings from the Israeli army that attacks were imminent.

Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets, drones and rockets into Israel – and drawn fierce Israeli retaliatory strikes – since Hamas’s attack on Israel last year. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are supported by Iran, Israel’s regional rival.

On Thursday, four Thai workers and an Israeli farmer were killed in an agricultural area in Metula, Israel’s northernmost city. The four were among seven people killed Thursday in a series of barrages fired on Israel from Lebanon.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Friday expressed his “personal and sincere condolences” to the Thai government, the Thai people and the families of those killed.

“Hezbollah-Iranian terrorism knows no bounds and harms Israelis and civilians alike around the world,” he said in a statement.

Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks have so far killed 41 civilians and 30 soldiers in Israel, according to government figures.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Bassem Mroue in Beirut, David Rising in Bangkok and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this story.