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 all over Lebanon and Gaza, killing at least 24 people in northeastern Lebanon on Friday, the country’s national news agency reported.

Meanwhile, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli attacks on central Gaza that began Thursday, hospital officials said.

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

Despite growing pressure from the United States and others in the international community for a cease-fire in the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon, Israeli attacks against the militant group Hezbollah are increasingly expanding beyond the outskirts of Lebanon.

Israeli attacks that initially targeted smaller border villages in southern Lebanon, where Iran-backed Hezbollah holds sway, have expanded to larger urban centers in recent weeks, where the group – which is also a political party important and a provider of social services – counts many supporters. .

Strikes intensified on and around the northeastern city of Baalbek this week they have driven about 60,000 people from their homes, according to Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker who represents the region.

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Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

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Lebanon’s National News Agency reported four airstrikes in various villages in the northeast, which had been largely spared the worst of Israeli bombardment until last month. The agency reported that 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.

Other attacks in the northeastern Baalbek-Hermel region killed eight people in the village of Amhaz and another two in the village of Taraya.

The Israeli military has said its operation in Lebanon is targeting Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, as the group continues to fire rockets, drones and rockets into Israel. Rockets fired from Lebanon killed seven people in northern Israel on Thursday, including four Thai workers.

Israeli planes also struck Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight and early Fridaydestroying dozens of buildings in several neighborhoods, according to the country’s news agency. The Israeli military said the strikes hit Hezbollah’s weapons production sites and command centers.

Lebanese officials had no word on the number of casualties from the Dahiyeh strikes.

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.

The latest violence comes against the backdrop of the Biden administration’s diplomatic revamp push days before the US election to reach temporary ceasefire agreements between Israel, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

In Gaza, officials at al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza said they continued to receive bodies from a barrage of Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat camp that killed 21, including an 18-month-old child and sister his 10 year old.

Israeli strikes also hit a motorcycle in Zuwaida and a house in Deir al-Balah, killing four more people, hospital officials said, bringing the total death toll in Gaza to 25 on Friday. In the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry from Gaza reported that 55 people were killed and another 196 wounded in the battered enclave.

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.

Israel began bombing Gaza after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year, when the terrorists killed around 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages back to Gaza.

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

Originally published: Nov 1, 2024 at 11:34 am EDT