Muhamad Yehia
Several large airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early Thursday, including one on a site adjacent to Lebanon’s only international airport. The Israeli military had issued an evacuation notice for the site, saying Hezbollah facilities were there, without giving more details.
Also Thursday, the Israeli military announced it expanded its month-old ground operation in northern Gaza to include part of Beit Lahiya, a town that has been heavily bombed since the earliest days of the war and where Israel says Hamas militants have regrouped.
Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said in a speech aired Wednesday that the Lebanese militant group is open for cease-fire negotiations only once “the enemy stops its aggression.” His speech marked the 40-day mourning period since former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in Beirut.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Since the conflict erupted, more than 3,000 people have been killed and some 13,600 wounded in Lebanon, the health ministry reported.
The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children
14 killed at school-turned-shelter in Gaza City
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian rescue workers say Israel struck a school-turned-shelter run by the United Nations in Gaza City, killing 14 people and wounding dozens of others.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the attack Thursday that hit the school operated by the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency known as UNRWA.
In recent months Israel has conducted dozens of airstrikes on schools across the embattled enclave, structures where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by fighting have sought refuge
The Gaza-based Civil Defense emergency service reported rescuers recovering the bodies of 14 people in the rubble of the school building in Shati refugee camp, just west of Gaza City along the Mediterranean coast. Israeli officials have defended such attacks in the past by claiming that Hamas uses school compounds as bases for militant operations.
Shortly after the strike, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of Shati camp among other neighborhoods west of Gaza City, spreading panic among Palestinians who in recent days had sought refuge in those areas from Israel’s renewed offensive against Hamas militants further north.
Since the yearlong Israel-Hamas war began, schools in Gaza have been closed and served as shelters for Palestinians fleeing theghting
Israeli military to allow 300 truckloads of aid from UAE into Gaza
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it will allow 300 truckloads of humanitarian aid supplied by the United Arab Emirates to enter the Gaza Strip in the coming days.
That’s less than the 350 trucks per day that the United States has said it wants to see enter the war-ravaged territory.
COGAT, the military body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza, said the aid was brought in by sea and unloaded at the Israeli port of Ashdod, just north of Gaza. It said the shipment, which includes food, water, medical equipment, shelter and hygiene supplies, would be inspected before being trucked into Gaza, though it did not specify a date.
The amount of aid entering Gaza dropped dramatically in October as Israel launched another offensive in the territory’s north. By the end of October, an average of just 71 trucks a day were entering Gaza, according to the latest U.N. figures.
The United States has warned Israel to ramp up the entry of aid by mid-November, saying failure to do so could lead to a reduction in military support.
Israel says it allows plenty of aid to enter Gaza and blames U.N. agencies and other aid groups for not distributing it. Humanitarian groups say their efforts are hobbled by Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order
Dozens of Lebanese killed in struck apartment building are laid to rest
TYRE, Lebanon — Dozens of Lebanese were laid to rest Thursday following an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment building in the town of Barja, just north of the port city of Sidon.
The Lebanese Civil Defense said it pulled at least 30 bodies and remains following Tuesday’s strike.
Among the killed were many members of the Basma family, who had fled deeper into southern Lebanon for safety. Family members who survived found shelter elsewhere or weren’t in the building at the time.
“My sister was killed last week, and now my brother, my nephew, and my other nephew with members of his family,” said Hassan Basma.
Nearby, Khadija Daramsis, who washes the bodies of the dead before burial in accordance with Islamic tradition, found herself doing the same for her nieces. She had just seen them last week
“They told me they were scared of the strikes and then they were struck,” Daramsis said as she wept. “What did they have to do with anything? Are they resistance? Are they Hezbollah?”
Israel says its strikes target Hezbollah militants or the group’s assets. The strike in Barja came without warning.
Khalil Basma says the war and Israel’s military escalation is the worst he’s seen in Lebanon.
“Knowing the wars we have gone through, this is regretfully the first time we see such crimes,” he said. “May God protect everyone and end this crisis.”
Israeli drone strike kills 3 in southern Lebanon city of Sidon, Lebanese state media says
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state news agency says an Israeli drone strike has hit a car at an army checkpoint in the southern port city of Sidon, killing three people and wounding several others including U.N. peacekeepers.
The National News Agency said one of the wounded was taken to the hospital while the peacekeepers were treated for minor injuries at the scene of the attack at the northern entrance of Sidon, Lebanon’s third-largest city.
The U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL said in a statement that a convoy bringing newly-arrived peacekeepers to south Lebanon was passing by when a drone strike took place near it. The strike lightly injured five peacekeepers, it said.
“We remind all actors of their obligation to avoid actions putting peacekeepers or civilians in danger. Differences should be resolved at the negotiating table, not through violence,” the statement said.
A drone strike earlier Thursday hit a car on a main highway just outside Beirut, killing one woman, according to local media.
French diplomat urges diplomatic solution
PARIS — France’s top diplomat has urged action in the coming weeks toward a political solution to the wars in the Mideast.
Visiting Israel, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Thursday that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has ″never hid his wish to end the interminable wars in the Middle East.”
“So the conditions seem right to me to move in the coming weeks toward a diplomatic solution to the current conflict. Because force alone cannot suffice to guarantee Israel’s security,” Barrot said.
Barrot called for a halt to Israel’s bombings of northern Gaza, saying they are contrary to Israel’s long-term interests.
″The Palestinian question will not disappear, regardless of what American administration is in office,″ Barrot told reporters.
He also warned Iran against further escalation, and called for a diplomatic solution for Lebanon. He met his Israeli counterpart and heads next to the Palestinian territories for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.