BY Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, NNA, Wafa, The Muslim News):
LEBANON
Israel Defence Forces killed 24 people and injured 45 others on Saturday in a series of airstrikes on several towns in the Baalbek region of eastern Lebanon, state media and the Health Ministry said.
More than 3,670 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, with about 15,300 wounded and 1.2 million displaced since October 2023.
Additionally, the Israeli onslaught, which escalated into a full-scale war in late September of this year, has displaced around 1.4 million people, many of whom have sought refuge to the northern parts of Lebanon.
At least 13 people, including four children, were killed, and 13 others were injured when Israeli warplanes targeted a house in the town of Shmustar.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said among the dead was a mother and her four children.
Five more people lost their lives and five others got injured in the town of Bodai.
Four people were killed and three others injured in the town of Flawiye, while another person was killed in the town of Brital.
Israeli airstrikes also injured 18 people in the town of Ras al-Ain, and three were wounded in the town of Hourtala.
In the Zahle district of Bekaa governorate, an Israeli airstrike in the Harat al-Fikani area killed one person and injured three others.
At least two people have been killed and four paramedics wounded in an Israeli air strike on the town of Ain Baal.
Earlier, an Israeli attack on the southern city of Tyre killed five people and injured 19 others, the Health Ministry said.
An Israeli attack on the city of Sahmar, in the western Bekaa region, resulted in two people wounded, it added.
According to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), the Israeli warplanes struck a home in the town of Chmistar, “resulting in a massacre” that left 13 people killed, including a mother and her four children. Thirteen others were also injured in the attack.
Two fishermen were killed Saturday in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, according to the country’s official news agency.
The Lebanese National News Agency reported that the attack directly targeted a group of fishermen on the beach of Tyre district, killing at least two.
Israeli airstrikes also targeted multiple towns and villages in the South Lebanon and Nabatieh governorates, killing at least 14 people and injuring 43 others in a series of attacks across the region.
Meantime, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health reported that the death toll from Israeli attacks on Friday alone had reached 25, with 58 others injured.
Some residents of the Basta area of Beirut are abandoning their homes after a series of Israeli air strikes earlier.
Local news outlets released videos of citizens carrying their belongings in the central part of the capital. At least 15 people were killed as a result of heavy Israeli attacks on the Basta neighbourhood.
The Israeli army on Saturday ordered the evacuation of residents from buildings in Hadath and Choueifat Al-Amrousieh, areas in Beirut’s southern suburbs, citing alleged links to Hezbollah.
In a statement, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned residents: “You must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and move at least 500 meters away.”
Adraee claimed the targeted areas housed “facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah,” signaling further Israeli strikes in the region.
This comes a day after Israeli forces struck multiple buildings in Hadath, Haret Hreik, and Ghobeiry, alongside attacks on five villages in southern Lebanon. The strikes are part of an ongoing conflict that escalated in late September when Israel launched an air campaign against what it says are Hezbollah targets.
Israeli airstrikes targeted the central Beirut neighborhood of Basta early on Saturday, killing four and injuring 23 others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
“Four people were martyred, and 23 others were injured in an airstrike by the Israeli enemy on the Basta area of Beirut,” the ministry said in a statement.
The official Lebanese National News Agency reported that the strike completely destroyed a residential building on Al-Mamoun Street in the district.
Rescue teams and emergency responders have been working to recover bodies and assist survivors amid the rubble. Several of those injured were rushed to nearby hospitals, where some remain in critical condition.
Two doctors and several outpatients evening were injured late Friday when the Israeli army opened fire on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, a medical source told Anadolu.
The source said the Israeli army’s quadcopter drones fired bullets and grenades at the hospital in the Beit Lahia area that injured doctors and outpatients.
The situation is “very catastrophic” in the light of the targeting and siege by Israel, under which no medical supplies and food have been able to get to the hospital, the source added.
Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, earlier urged the international community “to save the northern Gaza Strip before it’s too late.”
He noted that the army targeted the hospital’s electricity generators and disabled its oxygen station.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said among the dead was a mother and her four children.
Five more people lost their lives and five others got injured in the town of Bodai.
One person was killed and two others injured in the town of Flawiye, while another person was killed in the town of Brital.
Israeli airstrikes also injured eight people in the town of Ras al-Ain, and three were wounded in the town of Hourtala.
In the Zahle district of Bekaa governorate, an Israeli airstrike in the Harat al-Fikani area killed one person and injured two others.
he death toll in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut on Saturday rose to 15, while 63 others were injured, the Health Ministry said.
The official Lebanese National News Agency said the strike completely destroyed an eight-story residential building on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta district.
Rescue teams and emergency responders were working to recover bodies and assist survivors in the rubble. Several of those injured were rushed to nearby hospitals, where some remain in critical condition.
Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburb caused a wide-scale destruction Friday with fires to buildings and infrastructure, according to media reports.
It was the third wave of airstrikes on the southern suburb, also known as Dahieh, during the day.
Lebanese state news agency, NNA, reported heavy airstrikes on a Ghobeiry, Al-Hadath, Chiyah and Haret Hreik, causing widespread destruction and fires.
Israel on Friday deliberately targeted a director of Dar Al Amal Hospital in the Baalbek district of eastern Lebanon in an airstrike on his home that also killed six other health workers.
The Lebanese health sector continues to endure damage from Israeli strikes on hospitals and medical professionals as part of Tel Aviv’s aggression against the country as of early October.
According to the official Lebanese news agency NNA, an Israeli airstrike struck the home of Ali Allam, director of Dar Al Amal Hospital in Douris town of the Baalbek district, killing him and six other hospital employees.
Efforts are underway to remove the rubble, it added.
The Health Ministry mourned the brutal killings of Allam and six other health workers in the Israeli airstrike and urged the international community to put an end to the targeting of the health sector in Lebanon.
So far, according to Health Ministry figures, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed 214 medical workers, including paramedics.
The Israeli army on Friday bombed homes and buildings in the strategically important town of Khiyam in southern Lebanon, according to local official media.
The Lebanese official National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli army bombed Khiyam heavily as it advanced into the town.
People in nearby towns heard the thunder of at least two massive bombings, the NNA said.
An Israeli airstrike on a motorcycle in the town of Tour in Lebanon’s Tyre district killed two people on Friday evening, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
The agency reported that the airstrike resulted in “the martyrdom of two individuals,” but their identities have not been disclosed.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said on Saturday it launched rocket barrages towards Israeli army positions in the town of Khiam, Nabatieh governorate, southern Lebanon.
In a statement on Telegram, Hezbollah said its forces targeted the “enemy forces” with a “salvo of rockets,” marking the fourth such attack of the day.
The group had issued three earlier statements reporting similar operations.
Separately, the Lebanese group said its fighters “targeted a Merkava tank with a guided missile on Saturday afternoon west of the town of Chama, resulting in its destruction and leaving its crew either dead or wounded.”
Earlier in the day, the official Lebanese news agency said Israeli attacks on the border town have continued since Friday night into Saturday, with the Israeli army employing various types of weaponry in an attempt to seize control of the area.
Israeli forces also launched phosphorus shells on the nearby Jalahiya area.
The Lebanese news agency said the Israeli army’s operations in Khiam are not limited to ground incursions, but also involve planting explosives in certain buildings and demolishing them.
Khiam, about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel, is one of the three key towns in southern Lebanon that Israel has been attempting to seize over the past 10 days due to its strategic importance.
According to Lebanese military sources, Israel is focusing on three main axes in its ongoing ground campaign in southern Lebanon: Khiam, Bint Jbeil, and Chama.
The Lebanese group announced its fighters destroyed a Merkava tank with a guided missile on the eastern outskirts of the town of al-Bayada.
The attack led to casualties among the tank’s crew, it said.
Hezbollah also said it attacked the area of Meron in northern Israel with a “rocket salvo
GAZA
At least 120 Palestinians have been killed and 205 others wounded in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 48 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry says.
Local health authorities confirmed that the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli onslaught since October 7, 2023 has risen to 44,176 reported fatalities, with an additional 104,473 individuals sustaining injuries. The majority of the victims are women and children.
At least 38 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
At least 35 Palestinians were killed and scores of others injured on Friday in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting homes and makeshift shelters for displaced people across the Gaza Strip.
A medical source at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza told Anadolu that eight fatalities and multiple injuries were reported following an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
Four more bodies and several injured individuals were pulled from the rubble when an Israeli airstrike targeted a home in the same area, Gaza Civil Defense Forces confirmed.
In northern Gaza, Israeli drones repeatedly targeted Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Beit Lahia project area, injuring seven medical staff, with two of them in critical condition.
Hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya said the drones struck while staff were rescuing and treating victims from the initial strike on the hospital’s reception area and oxygen unit.
Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli warplanes carried out further strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, while Israeli forces burned Palestinian homes in the vicinity of Beit Lahia’s town square.
The Israeli army on Saturday warned residents in parts of the Shujaiyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, to evacuate before it is attacked, calling it a “dangerous combat zone.”
“Urgent warning to residents of Gaza in blocks 731-732-733-634 in the Shujaiyya area, as it is considered a dangerous combat zone. For your safety, move south immediately,” Avichay Adraee, Israeli army’s spokesperson, said on X.
Adraee claimed Palestinian groups are firing rockets from Gaza at Israel from these areas, which he marked on a map he uploaded.
He said “this area has been warned several times in the past.”
Such messages are typically followed by violent attacks or ground incursions by the Israeli army into the Gaza Strip.
At least five Palestinians were killed and several others injured in airstrikes carried out by Israeli warplanes in Gaza City and Khan Younis on Saturday evening.
According to medical sources, two individuals were killed and others wounded in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of civilians in the Al-Amal neighborhood near the Red Crescent Hospital in Khan Younis, located in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
In a separate attack, three more people were killed, and several others were injured when Israeli fighter jets struck a group of civilians near the Lulu complex in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City.
Separately, medical sources told Anadolu that one Palestinian was killed and another injured when Israeli army boats targeted a fishing boat in Gaza City.
In another attack, three Palestinians were killed and others injured west of Gaza City, according to medical sources at Al-Shifa Hospital.
In central Gaza, five Palestinians were killed and others injured in an airstrike that hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to medical sources.
Two more Palestinians were killed and others injured when an Israeli helicopter targeted a home in Deir Al-Balah.
In southern Gaza, a woman and her daughter were killed when an Israeli helicopter struck a tent sheltering displaced people in the Mawasi area west of Khan Younis, according to medical sources.
Two more Palestinians were killed and several others were injured in an airstrike west of Rafah in southern Gaza, according to paramedics.
Later in the day, witnesses told Anadolu that two Palestinians were killed and one was injured in an Israeli strike east of the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
In a separate incident, three Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an airstrike east of Gaza City, according to medical staff at al-Shifa Hospital.
Palestinian paramedics told Anadolu that they evacuated two individuals from Rafah in southern Gaza following an Israeli strike, noting that “one was killed, and the other was injured.”
In a separate episode, an Israeli warplane struck a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing two Palestinians and injuring several others, according to medical sources.
WEST BANK
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in the Masafer Yatta region, south of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, Palestine’s Wafa news agency reports.
Settlers from the Havat Maon outpost assaulted the home of a local activist in the village of Tuwanah, injuring two people. The activist was arrested by Israeli soldiers who backed the settlers.
Another home was attacked in a village in the same area, causing extensive damage to the property.
Wafa also reported Israeli soldiers shut down the Jaba military checkpoint that serves as the southern entrance to the Ramallah and el-Bireh governorate.
IBRAHIMI MOSQUE
Thousands of illegal Israeli settlers, led by the far-right Israeli Government’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, to mark a Jewish holiday.
Aref Jaber, a member of a local committee working to defend Hebron against Israeli violations, told Anadolu that several buses transported the settlers to the Ibrahimi Mosque, where they performed Talmudic rituals for the Jewish holiday known as Chayei Sarah (Life of Sarah).
“The Israeli army completely sealed off the Old City in Hebron (where Ibrahimi Mosque is located) and imposed a curfew on the people,” Jaber added.
Ghassan Al-Rajbi, director of the Ibrahimi Mosque, told Anadolu that the Israeli army closed the mosque to the Palestinians and kicked the mosque’s employees out it until Saturday evening.
He noted that the settlers were escorted by Israeli ministers, including Ben-Gvir.
The Ibrahimi Mosque is located in the old city of Hebron in the southern West Bank, which is under Israeli control. About 400 illegal Israeli settlers live there, guarded by around 1,500 Israeli soldiers.
Revered by both Muslims and Jews, Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque complex is believed to be the burial site of the prophets Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
After the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers inside the mosque during fajr prayers in Ramadan by a Jewish extremist settler, Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli authorities divided the mosque complex between Muslim and Jewish worshippers.
In 2017, the UNESCO-affiliated World Heritage Committee declared the Ibrahimi Mosque a Palestinian World Heritage Site.
[Photo: Smoke rises from the Faruq Mosque following Israel’s intense airstrikes on the mosque in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in Gaza City, Gaza on November 23, 2024. Photojournalist: Hassan Jedi/AA]
