Israeli airstrikes on Christian towns in northern Lebanon have killed more than 20 people and prompted Hezbollah to fire rockets at Tel Aviv as Israel’s multi-front war continues to escalate.
It was also a particularly bloody 24 hours in the Gaza Strip. Israeli bombing of a hospital courtyard in central Gaza kills four people; another bombing of a nearby school used as a shelter kills at least 20; drone attack on Gaza’s al-Shati camp Five children have died while playing on the street in the city, according to local health officials.
Human rights groups say Israel is waging another violent operation in the besieged Palestinian territory, seeking to forcefully expel the remaining residents of northern Gaza. The Israeli military said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties in three incidents on Sunday and Monday.
A bomb that struck Lebanon on Monday afternoon in the Maronite village of Aitu, near Tripoli in the north, hit a small apartment building and killed 21 people, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. Footage from the scene broadcast by Lebanese television showed badly damaged buildings, destroyed cars and dead and wounded people lying on the road 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. Village Mayor Joseph Trad told Reuters the building had been rented out to families displaced by the war.
The airstrike was one of several airstrikes targeting supposedly “safe” areas over the past two weeks, including last week’s bombing of a shelter in the southern town of Wardaniye. Israel has also faced international criticism for at least three violations that injured five UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
On Monday, Italy, Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s repeated attacks on UN peacekeepers. “These attacks must stop immediately,” it said, adding that deliberate attacks violate international law.
Five peacekeepers have been wounded in attacks on their positions since Israel began its ground operation against the militant group Hezbollah, the majority of which have been attributed to Israeli forces. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said: “Their work is extremely important. Attacks on UN forces are completely unacceptable.”
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces or Hezbollah about the Aitou attack or its targets. The Israel Defense Forces said it targeted Mohammad Kamel Naim, the head of an anti-tank unit in a powerful Lebanese militia, in an attack in the southern city of Nabatiyeh on Monday.
On Monday night, Hezbollah appeared to respond to the Aitou attack by firing a volley of at least three rockets into Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial and diplomatic capital. Air raid sirens sounded across vast areas of central and northern Israel, but the attack was thwarted by Israeli air defense systems.
Surveillance camera captures the moment a rocket hits a northern Israeli town during a Hezbollah attack – video
On Sunday, Hezbollah launched its deadliest attack yet on Israel during the two-week war, attacking a military base near Binyamina with a drone, killing four soldiers and seriously wounding seven more. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed a “strong response” to the attack in a phone conversation with US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin on Monday.
In Gaza, four people were killed in an Israeli attack early Monday morning in the courtyard of al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the territory. The bombing caused a large fire, leaving 25 people with severe burns.
Gaza attack map
The hospital was already struggling to treat the injured Sunday night, when at least 20 people were killed in a strike against a school that had been turned into a shelter in the nearby Nuseyrat refugee camp. Five children from Gaza City’s al-Shati camp were also killed in a drone attack on Sunday, according to the Gaza Civil Defense Agency.
Late Monday, the IDF announced that one soldier was killed in fighting in southern Gaza.
The new airstrikes come as Israel’s latest operation in Gaza City’s Jabaliyah district enters its second week. With an estimated 400,000 people trapped in the fighting and Israel not allowing food into the north since the beginning of this month, the United Nations World Food Program has renewed its warning of impending famine.
All of northern Gaza is currently under an Israeli evacuation order. Some of those remaining in the north include the disabled, the elderly, and their families, who say it is too dangerous to move.
Israel does not allow the return of people from above what is now known as the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects the Strip. Those clinging to the North fear they will face the same fate if they leave.
Destruction after the Israeli attack on the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah. Photo: APAImages/Rex/Shutterstock
On Monday, Israeli-Palestinian rights groups B’Tselem, Gisha, Yesh Din, and Doctors for Human Rights told the international community that Israel is implementing the “General’s Plan,” dubbed a “starve or surrender” strategy. asked to be prevented from doing so. It could be a war crime.
In a statement, the human rights group said there were “alarming signs” that Israel was beginning to carry out Plan Jabaliya, and warned that states “have an obligation to prevent the crimes of starvation and forced displacement.”
The IDF says it has received no such orders. However, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Sunday, citing “high-level defense officials,” that the Israeli government had given up on ceasefire and hostage release negotiations stalled in the year-long war and that the political leadership was instead “pushing for gradual annexation.” “I’m doing it,” it said. Most of Gaza.”
