Israel pummels Gaza and Lebanon, killing dozens in latest wave of deadly airstrikes
Associated Press
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military launched waves of deadly airstrikes across Gaza and Lebanon on Friday, killing 25 people in the central Gaza Strip, according to the enclave’s health authorities. Israeli attacks across Lebanon’s northeast killed at least two dozen people, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
It was another day of bloodshed both in Gaza, where Israel said it had targeted Hamas infrastructure and a militant 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.
Officials from the al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza said they continued to receive bodies from a barrage of Israeli airstrikes on Nuseirat camp that began overnight, leaving 21 dead, including an 18-month-old and his 10-year-old sister.
Strikes on a motorcycle in Zuwaida and on a house in Deir al-Balah, also in central Gaza, on Friday killed four more people, the hospital officials said, bringing the overall toll to 25.
The Israeli military did not comment on the strikes outside Nuseirat camp. It said it was aware of reports of civilian casualties and was investigating.
Israel’s blistering offensive on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, say health officials inside Gaza who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. They say more than half of the dead are women and children.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday that a total of 55 people had been killed in the past 24 hours and that another 196 had been wounded.
Israel began bombarding Gaza after the Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7, when the militants killed roughly 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages back to Gaza.
Despite growing pressure from the United States and others in the international community for a cease-fire both in Gaza and Lebanon, Israel’s air force launched attacks across Lebanon Friday, killing 24 people just in the country’s northeast.
Lebanon’s state National news Agency reported four airstrikes in different villages across 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 that was believed to have housed 20 people.
In recent days, Israel has intensified its airstrikes on the northeastern city of Baalbek and nearby villages, as well as different parts of southern Lebanon, prompting roughly 60,000 people to flee their homes, according to Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region.
In an attack in the northeastern Baalbek-Hermel region, eight people were killed when a home was hit in the village of Amhaz and two more were killed in the village of Taraya, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
Israel’s military has said that its operation in Lebanon is 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.
Israel’s military said in a statement that attacks “in the area of Beirut” had targeted Hezbollah weapons manufacturing sites, command centers and other infrastructure.
Israeli planes also pounded Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight, destroying dozens of buildings in several neighborhoods, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
The early Friday airstrikes on Dahiyeh came after a four-day lull during which no airstrikes were reported in the suburb. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Lebanon’s Heath Ministry said more than 2,800 people have been killed and 13,000 wounded since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets almost daily into Israel, drawing retaliation.
Jens Laerke of the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid, said there has also been a “wave of displacement” in recent days as tens of thousands of people have fled following warnings from Israel’s military that attacks were imminent.
Hezbollah has been firing thousands of rockets, drones and missiles into Israel — and drawing fierce Israeli retaliatory strikes — since Hamas’ attack on Israel last year. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran, Israel’s regional adversary.
On Thursday, four Thai workers and an Israeli farmer were killed in an agricultural area in Metula, Israel’s northernmost town. The four were among seven people killed Thursday in a series of barrages fired at Israel from Lebanon.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Friday his “personal and heartfelt condolences” went out to the government of Thailand, the Thai people and the families of those killed.
“Hezbollah-Iranian terrorism knows no limits and harms Israelis and civilians from all over the world alike,” he said in a statement.
Cross-border attacks from Hezbollah have killed 41 civilians and 30 soldiers in Israel so far, 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.
