Middle East Latest: Israeli strikes kill 10 in Gaza, 2 in West Bank

Israeli strikes on Tuesday morning killed 10 people in the Gaza Strip, including four children and two women, Palestinian officials say. In busy WEST BANKIsraeli forces killed two people in an airstrike and shot a third person dead.

Despite increasing pressure from the United States and others in the international community for a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon, intensified Israeli attacks against the militant group Hezbollah expand beyond the border areas of Lebanon. Israel also struggles with a seemingly endless war against Hamas in northern Gaza.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah broke out in 2023, at least 3,000 people have been killed and about 13,500 injured in Lebanon, the Ministry of Health reports.

More than a year of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza it has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children. The war started after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing approximately 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapping another 250.

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Here are the latest:

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes early Tuesday killed 10 people in the Gaza Strip, including four children and two women.

A strike hit a house in the Tufah neighborhood of Gaza City, killing two children and their parents, according to the emergency service of the Gaza Ministry of Health. Two other children were reportedly injured.

In the central city of Zuweida, an Israeli airstrike hit a tent housing a displaced family, killing four people, including a mother and her two children, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah.

Another strike hit a house in Deir al-Balah, killing two people, the hospital said.

An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies at the hospital morgue.

The Israeli military says it is only targeting militants and accuses them of hiding among civilians. They rarely comment on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 250 hostage. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says more than half were women and children. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian officials say Israeli forces have killed three people in the occupied zone WEST BANK.

Two were killed in an airstrike early Tuesday near the northern city of Jenin, a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence in recent years. A third person was shot in the village of Tamoun, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The Israeli military said it had launched an airstrike on a militant cell near Jenin. There was no immediate comment on the shooting.

Israeli forces have carried out almost daily military raids in the West Bank since the October 7 Hamas attack in the Gaza Strip sparked the Israel-Hamas war. The Health Ministry says at least 767 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then. Most appear to have been militants killed in fighting with Israeli forces, but the dead include civilian bystanders and people killed during protests.

Israel says the raids are aimed at dismantling Hamas in the West Bank and preventing attacks. Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis since the start of the war.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.