Israel bombed Lebanon and Gaza, killing dozens of people

Beirut— Israel heavily bombed farming villages in northeastern Lebanon on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding several others, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in Israeli bombardments that began Thursday, medical officials said.

Israel has stepped up its offensive against Hamas fighters in Gaza, destroying swathes of the northern Palestinian territory, sparking fears the humanitarian situation will worsen for civilians still living there.

In Lebanon, Israel, after initially targeting small border villages in the south where Hezbollah operates, has expanded its attacks on large urban centers such as the city of Baalbek, where 80,000 people live. Hezbollah is a major political party and social service provider in Lebanon.

On October 7, 2023, after Israel launched its offensive into Gaza in response to a Hamas attack, Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones, and missiles from Lebanon toward Israel in a show of solidarity with Hamas. The battle turned into an all-out war on 1 October. When Israeli forces launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006.

In Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley – where small villages, olive groves and vineyards nestled among the country’s mountain ranges had been largely spared Israeli bombardment until last month – Israel launched an intense bombardment on Friday, killing at least At least 52 people were killed, and more families were forced to flee. Thick columns of smoke on the horizon.

Israeli attacks in and around the northeastern city of Baalbek have displaced 60,000 people, prompting the evacuation of nearby villages, said Hussein Haj Hassan, the Lebanese MP who represents the area.

Rescue workers searched for survivors and demolished a building housing 20 people in the village of Yunin after Israeli shelling killed nine people. Other Israeli attacks killed 12 people in the village of Amhaz and 31 in at least a dozen villages in northeastern Lebanon, the health ministry said, bringing the death toll to 52. The ministry said 72 other people were injured in the bombings.

Israel has not yet commented on the attacks.

In the Lebanese capital, Israeli planes bombed the southern suburb of Dahiyah overnight and into Friday morning for the first time in four days, causing panic. The Israeli military, which had warned residents to evacuate at least nine locations in Dahiyah, said it had struck Hezbollah weapons manufacturing sites and command centers.

There were no reports of any casualties from Dahiyah, where residents flee en masse every night for fear of Israeli bombardment.

Excavators cleared debris from streets where Israeli warplanes had destroyed dozens of buildings.

Formerly home to families and businesses, mid-rise apartment blocks were left open to the wind, with walls torn and furniture buried. In several places, Hezbollah supporters raised the group’s yellow flag over the debris.

More than 2,897 people have been killed and 13,150 injured in Lebanon since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began last year, according to health ministry data, which does not yet include Friday’s death toll. Officials indicated that a quarter of the dead were women and children.

UN agencies estimate that Israel’s ground invasion and bombing of Lebanon has displaced 1.4 million people. About 60,000 residents of northern Israel near Lebanon have also been displaced for more than a year.

Hezbollah continues to fire rockets into northern Israel. On Thursday, projectiles fired from Lebanon killed seven people, including four Thai farm workers.

Israel continued bombing Gaza on Friday also. At least 21 Palestinians, including an 18-month-old boy and his 10-year-old sister, were killed in a series of Israeli attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip, according to health officials at Shahid al-Hospital. Aqsa.

Hospital officials said Israel also struck a motorcycle in Juwayda and a house in Deir al-Balah, killing four more people, bringing the total number of deaths in Gaza to 25 on Friday.

Israel said it had struck Hamas infrastructure and a militia operating near the Nussirat refugee camp, but did not comment on attacks outside the camp. He said he was aware of reports of civilian casualties and was investigating. In a separate announcement, the Israeli military said its strike on a vehicle in the southern city of Khan Yunis killed Izz al-Din Kassab, a senior member of Hamas’ political bureau, and his assistant Ayman Ayish.

Hamas confirmed Kassab’s death, about which little was known to the public. Israel alleged that he was a coordinator among guerrillas in Gaza.

So far there have been no signs of progress in ceasefire talks in Lebanon or Gaza.

Hamas reiterated on Friday that any ceasefire must be permanent and include Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza, noting that Israel has only offered a temporary pause in fighting and an increase in aid shipments in recent talks. At present there has been no comment from Israel.

Speaking to Hamas’s Al Aqsa television before confirming the group’s position to The Associated Press, senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said, “The proposals do not meet the broader needs of the Palestinian people in terms of security, stability, relief and reconstruction.” Are.”

More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war in Gaza since October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and captured about 250.

Israeli attacks have repeatedly delayed an emergency polio vaccination campaign, which the World Health Organization finally announced plans to launch on Saturday, but only in Gaza City. Towns in the north such as Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun remain inaccessible due to the Israeli siege.

The United Nations and other humanitarian organizations warned on Friday that “the situation in northern Gaza is catastrophic” as Israel blocks humanitarian aid from entering the territory, conducts military raids on hospitals, bombards shelters and kills survivors. Israeli bombing hinders the efforts of Palestinian rescue groups struggling to help.

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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip. Associated Press journalists Julia Frankel in Jerusalem; Bassem Maroué in Beirut; David Rising in Bangkok; Isabel Debré in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Edith Lederer in New York and Jamie Keaton in Geneva contributed to this report.

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.