An Israeli airstrike on a Christian town in northern Lebanon killed more than 20 people, prompting Hezbollah to fire rockets at Tel Aviv as Israel’s multi-front war continues to escalate.
Especially the 24 hours of bloodshed in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli bombardment of a hospital compound in central Gaza killed four people, another attack on a nearby school killed at least 20, and a drone strike killed five children playing in the street in Al-Shadi camp in Gaza. According to city, local health officials.
Rights groups say Israel is seeking to force out the remaining residents of northern Gaza in a ferocious renewed campaign against the besieged Palestinian territory. The Israeli military said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties in three incidents on Sunday and Monday.
A blast in Lebanon on Monday afternoon hit the Maronite village of Itou near the northern city of Tripoli, hitting a small apartment building, killing 21 people, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. Footage of the scene broadcast by Lebanese television channels showed a heavily damaged building, destroyed cars and dead and injured people lying in the street as people dug through the rubble.
Aitou is far from Beirut and Hezbollah’s centers of power in the south and east of the country. The building has been rented out to families displaced by the war, the village’s mayor, Joseph Trede, told Reuters.
The strike was one of several targeting areas deemed “safe” over the past two weeks, including last week’s bombing of a refugee center in the southern city of Vardaniyev. UN in Lebanon Israel also faces international criticism for at least three violations that injured five members of the peacekeeping mission.
On Monday, Italy, Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s repeated attacks on UN peacekeepers. “These attacks must stop immediately,” they said, adding that the deliberate attacks were against international law.
Five peacekeepers have been wounded in attacks on positions of the Hezbollah militant group since Israel began a ground campaign against them, most of which have been blamed on Israeli forces. EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell said: “Their work is very important. Attacking United Nations troops is totally unacceptable.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces or Hezbollah on the Aitou strike or its target. The IDF said Monday’s strike in the southern city of Nabati targeted Muhammad Kamel Naim, head of the powerful Lebanese militia’s anti-tank unit.
On Monday evening, Hezbollah responded to the Aitou attack by firing at least three rockets at Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial and diplomatic hub. Air raid sirens were triggered over vast areas of central and northern Israel, but the attack was thwarted by Israel’s air defense systems.
On Sunday Hezbollah launched its deadliest attack on Israel during the two-week war, when a drone attack on a military base near Binyamina killed four soldiers and seriously wounded seven others. Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, promised a “strong response” to the attack during a phone call with his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, on Monday.
In Gaza, four people were killed in an Israeli attack on the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Bala early Monday. The blast caused a massive fire and 25 people suffered severe burns.
The hospital was already struggling to treat the injured in Sunday night’s strike, which left at least 20 people dead after a school-turned-shelter in the nearby Nusirat refugee camp. Five children in al-Shadi camp in Gaza City were killed in a drone strike on Sunday, Gaza’s civil defense agency said.
Later on Monday, the IDF said a soldier was killed in combat in southern Gaza.
The renewed airstrikes come amid Israel’s latest campaign in Gaza City’s Jabalia, now in its second week. About 400,000 people have been caught up in the fighting and Israel has not allowed any food to enter the north since the beginning of the month, which the UN said. The World Food Program has once again raised the alarm of imminent famine.
The entire area of northern Gaza is now under an Israeli evacuation order. Among those staying in the north are disabled or elderly people and their families, who say it is too dangerous and difficult to move.
Israel did not allow anyone to return home from above what is now known as the Netzarim Corridor; Those clinging to the North fear the same fate if they leave.
On Monday, the Israeli-Palestinian rights groups B’Tselem, Gisha, Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights called on the international community to stop Israel’s conduct. “General Plan”Described as a “starvation or surrender” strategy, it amounted to war crimes.
In a statement, the rights groups said there were “alarming signs” that Israel was starting to implement the program in Jabaliya, and warned that “states have an obligation to prevent crimes such as starvation and forced displacement.”
The IDF says it has not received any such orders. However, citing “senior security officials”, the Israeli daily Haaretz The Israeli government said on Sunday it had abandoned stalled ceasefire and hostage-release talks in the year-long war, and instead the political leadership was “pushing for the gradual annexation of large swathes of Gaza”.
