Israel strikes Gaza and Lebanon

By WAFAA SHURAFA and JULIA FRANKEL

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) – The Israeli military launched waves of deadly attacks airstrikes over Gaza and Lebanon on Friday, killing 25 people in the central Gaza Strip, according to the enclave’s health authorities. Israeli attacks in northeastern Lebanon have killed at least two dozen people, Lebanon’s national news agency reported.

It was another day of bloodshed both in Gaza, where Israel said it had targeted Hamas infrastructure and a fighter operating in the area of the central Nuseirat refugee camp, and in Lebanon, where Israel stepped up airstrikes against Hezbollah in the Northeast this week. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Officials at al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza said they continued to receive bodies from a bombardment of Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat camp that began overnight, leaving 21 dead, including an 18-month-old child and his 10-year-old sister.

Strikes on a motorcycle in Zuwaida and a house in Deir al-Balah, also in central Gaza, killed four more people on Friday, hospital officials said, bringing the total to 25.

The Israeli military did not comment on the strikes outside the Nuseirat camp. 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 terrorists killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza.

Despite mounting 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 strikes across Lebanon on Friday, killing 24 people in just the northeast the country.

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Flames and smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday morning, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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Lebanon’s National News Agency reported four airstrikes in different villages in the country’s northeast, saying rescuers were still searching for survivors in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, from the rubble of a targeted building believed to have housed 20 people.

In recent days, Israel has stepped up its airstrikes on the northeastern city of Baalbek and nearby villages as well different parts of southern Lebanonwhich prompted about 60,000 people to flee their homes, according to Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese parliamentarian who represents the region.

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.

The Israeli military said its operation in Lebanon was targeting Hezbollah’s military infrastructure.

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.

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

Originally published: November 1, 2024 at 10:34 AM CDT