Deir al-Balah (Gaza Strip) – The Israeli army announced that a Hezbollah drone attack on a military base in central Israel killed four soldiers and seriously injured seven others on Sunday, in the deadliest attack launched by the armed group since Israel launched its attack on Gaza. Ground invasion of Lebanon Nearly two weeks ago.
Lebanon-based Hezbollah described the attack, which occurred near the city of Binyamina, as retaliation Israeli raids on Beirut On Thursday, 22 people were killed. It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani Brigade, firing dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defense systems during the attack by drone “swarms.”
The Israeli National Rescue Service said the attack injured 61 people. With Israel’s advanced air defense systems, it is rare for such a large number of people to be hit by drones or missiles. Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire almost daily during the year since then The war in Gaza He started, and the fighting escalated.
Israel launched its ground operation in Lebanon earlier this month with the aim of weakening Hezbollah and pushing the armed group away from the border to allow thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their homes.
Inside Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 20 people, including children, at a school Sunday night, according to two local hospitals. The school in Nuseirat sheltered some Palestinians who were displaced by the war.
On the other hand, explosions rocked Monday morning outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, killing three people and wounding about 50 others, according to the hospital. The tents caught fire, and residents of central Gaza transferred the injured to the hospital.
Hezbollah’s deadly strike in Israel came on the same day the United States announced it would do so Sending a new air defense system to Israel To help enhance protection against missiles, along with the forces needed to operate them. An Israeli army spokesman declined to provide a timetable.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Gaza Lebanon – Both Iranian-backed armed groups – and they are It is expected to strike Iran In response to a missile attack earlier this month. Iran said it would respond to any Israeli attack.
Netanyahu describes UN peacekeepers as a “human shield” for Hezbollah
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said Israeli tanks forcefully entered the gates of one of the sites early Sunday and destroyed the main gate. They later fired smoke canisters near the peacekeepers, causing skin irritation. UNIFIL described the incident as “another flagrant violation of international law.”
International criticism is increasing after Israeli forces opened fire repeatedly United Nations peacekeeping forces Since the start of the ground operation in Lebanon. Five peacekeepers were injured in attacks targeting their positions, most of which were blamed on Israeli forces.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, described Sunday’s incident as “deeply disturbing” and said that attacks against peacekeepers may constitute a war crime.
The Israeli army says that Hezbollah operates around peacekeepers without providing evidence.
Military officials said a tank trying to evacuate wounded soldiers rolled back into a UN position on Sunday while coming under fire. They added that a smoke screen was used to provide cover.
Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani confirmed that Israel tried to maintain continuous contact with UNIFIL, and any case of UN forces being harmed would be investigated at the “highest level.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on UNIFIL forces to heed Israel’s warnings to evacuate, accusing them of “providing a human shield” to Hezbollah.
“We regret that the UNIFIL soldiers were injured, and we are doing everything we can to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is to simply remove them from the danger zone.” Who was banned from entering Israel.
Israel has long accused the United Nations of bias against it, and relations have deteriorated further since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
The Israeli raid on Lebanon destroys the Ottoman market
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, prompting retaliatory airstrikes. The conflict escalated in September with Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of its senior commanders.
Israel launched a ground operation earlier this month. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since September, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, which did not mention the number of Hezbollah fighters. At least 58 people were killed in the missile attacks on Israel, about half of them soldiers.
Overnight Israeli air strikes destroyed an Ottoman-era market in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh, killing at least one person and wounding four.
“All our livelihoods have been destroyed,” said Ahmed Fakih, whose shop was destroyed. Rescuers searched the destroyed buildings while Israeli drones flew overhead.
The Israeli army said it struck Hezbollah targets, without elaborating, and said it continued targeting militants on Sunday.
Separately, the Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching for victims in a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon when a second strike left four paramedics with concussions and damaged two ambulances.
The Red Cross said that the operation was coordinated with the United Nations peacekeeping forces, which informed the Israeli side.
Bodies rot in the streets of northern Gaza
Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza on an almost daily basis. The army says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areas.
In northern Gaza, Israeli air and ground forces are attacking Jabalia, where the army says militants have regrouped. Over the past year, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the built-up refugee camp, which dates back to The 1948 war surrounding the establishment of Israeland other fields.
Israel ordered the complete evacuation of the northern Gaza Strip, including Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 people remain in the north after mass evacuation orders in the first weeks of the war.
The Palestinians fear that Israel is intent on doing so Evacuate the north permanently To establish military bases or Jewish settlements there.
The United Nations says no food has entered northern Gaza since October 1.
The army confirmed that hospitals were included in the evacuation orders, but said it had not set a timetable and was working with local authorities to facilitate the transfer of patients.
Fares Abu Hamza, emergency service official at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that the bodies of “a large number of martyrs” had still not been recovered from the streets and under the rubble.
“We cannot reach them,” he said, stressing that dogs eat some of the remains.
The war has begun When Hamas-led militants attacked a year ago, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapping about 250. About 100 hostages They remain detained in GazaIt is believed that a third of him died.
The Israeli bombing and ground invasion of Gaza led to the deaths of more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Much of the land was left in ruins. The ministry does not differentiate between militants and civilians, but says that women and children constitute more than half of the deaths.
Israel says it killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Karim Chehayeb and Abby Sewell in Beirut, Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wafaa Sharafa in Deir al-Balah, and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City, Utah, contributed to this report.
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Find out more AP war coverage on https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
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