Israel is bombarding Gaza and Lebanon

By SALLY ABOU ALJOUD and WAFAA SHURAFA

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel launched waves of fatalities air strikes in northeastern Lebanon It killed at least 45 people on Friday, authorities said, and turned once-bustling neighborhood blocks in Beirut’s southern suburbs into smoldering ruins.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in central Gaza have recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli airstrikes that began Thursday, hospital officials said. Israel said it had attacked Hamas infrastructure near the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The latest violence comes against the backdrop of renewed diplomatic pressure from the Biden administration, days before the election American electionsto conclude temporary ceasefire agreements. Israel has stepped up its offensive against the remaining Hamas fighters in Gaza. pulverizing areas in the north and increasing fears of worsening humanitarian conditions for civilians still there.

Israel has expanded its attacks in Lebanon in recent weeks to larger urban hubs such as Baalbek, after initially targeting smaller border villages in the south, where Hezbollah has deep support. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah also serves as a major political party and social services provider in Lebanon.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and rockets from Lebanon into Israel in solidarity with Hamas, immediately after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza. These years of cross-border fighting culminated in full-blown war on October 1, when Israeli forces launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006.

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

In Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley – where small villages, olive groves and wineries nestled among the country’s mountain ranges had been largely spared the worst of Israeli bombing until last month – Israel carried out a series of heavy airstrikes on Friday, killing at least 52 people. lives were lost and more families were displaced. to flee with everything they could carry and send thick plumes of smoke over the horizon.

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

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Intensified Israeli airstrikes in and around the northeastern city of Baalbek This week, 60,000 people have been driven to flee their homes, leaving many small villages in the area empty, said Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region.

Rescuers searched for survivors after airstrikes killed seven people in the Beqaa Valley town of Younine, Governor Bachir Khodr said, and demolished a building believed to house 20 people. Further Israeli attacks in the northeast killed 11 people in the village of Amhaz, five people in the town of Nahleh and 14 others across the Bekaa Valley, Khodr added.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency also reported the deaths of four others in the small village of Ollak, bringing the total death toll from Friday’s attacks on the Bekaa Valley to 45. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the deadly attacks.

Israeli planes stormed Lebanon’s capital the southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight and early Friday for the first time in four days, sparking panic after a rare lull. The Israeli army, which warned residents to evacuate at least nine locations in Dahiyeh, said it had hit Hezbollah weapons production sites and command centers.

There were no reports of casualties from Dahiyeh, where fear of Israeli bombings is causing a mass outflow of residents every night.

Bulldozers rumbled through clouds of dust and smoke Friday, clearing rubble from pulverized roads where Israeli warplanes had reduced dozens of buildings to their skeletal remains.

Formerly home to families and businesses, the mid-rise apartment buildings were left open to the wind, walls blown away and furniture buried. Hezbollah supporters raised the group’s bright yellow flag atop the rubble at several locations.

More than 2,897 people have been killed and 13,150 injured in Lebanon since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah broke out last year, the Health Ministry said, not including Friday’s toll. Health authorities say a quarter of the deaths were women and children.

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

Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets into northern Israel, with projectiles launched from Lebanon on Thursday hitting agricultural areas and killing seven people, including four Thai farm workers.

Israel also continued its bombardment of Gaza on Friday, with a barrage of airstrikes hitting the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 21 Palestinians – including an 18-month-old child and his 10-year-old sister – according to health data. officials from the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

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 as of Friday.

The Israeli military did not comment on the attacks outside the Nuseirat camp. It said it was aware of reports of civilian casualties and was investigating. In a separate announcement, the army said an airstrike on a vehicle in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis killed a senior member of Hamas’ political bureau, Izz al-Din Kassab, and his aide, Ayman Ayesh.

Hamas confirmed Kassab’s death, which was not well known to the public. Israel claimed he was a coordinator between terrorist groups in Gaza.

As US diplomats left the region this week after a series of meetings with Israeli officials, there were no signs of a breakthrough in the ceasefire in Lebanon or Gaza.

Hamas on Friday doubled down on its long-standing demands for a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, saying Israel offered only a temporary pause in the war and an increase in aid shipments during the latest negotiations. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

“The proposals do not meet the comprehensive needs of the Palestinian people for security, stability, relief and reconstruction,” said senior Hamas official Bassem Naem, who first spoke to Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV before taking the position of the group confirmed to the Palestinian Authority. Associated press.

Israel The blistering war in Gaza has cost the lives of more than 43,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 hostages to Gaza.

Health officials in Hamas-run Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but say more than half of the enclave’s deaths are women and children.

Israeli forces recently shifted their focus to Hamas fighters who they say have regrouped in northern Gaza, renewing an offensive that has trapped tens of thousands of people under intense bombardment without adequate food or water.

Israeli airstrikes have repeatedly delayed an emergency polio vaccination campaign that the World Health Organization said it would finally launch on Saturday – but only in Gaza City. Cities further north, such as Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, remain inaccessible as Israel tightens its siege.

The UN and other humanitarian organizations warned Friday that “the situation unfolding in northern Gaza is apocalyptic,” citing Israel’s denial of humanitarian aid to the area, military attacks on hospitals, airstrikes on shelters and obstruction of Palestinian rescue teams struggling to have to help. survivors after Israeli attacks.

Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, David Rising in Bangkok, Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Edith Lederer in New York and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

Originally published: November 1, 2024 at 8:34 AM PDT