By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, NNA, Wafa):
LEBANON
Governor of Baalbek-Hermel says 40 Israeli strikes killed at least 38 people and wounded 54 today.
Bachir Khodr, the governor of Baalbek-Hermel province, said on his X account that Israeli warplanes had carried out 20 airstrikes on Baalbek on Wednesday.
In Lebanon, at least 3,013 people have been killed and 13,553 wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began.
Lebanon’s Civil Defence crew has pulled 30 bodies from the rubble of an apartment building in Lebanon’s Barja, after it was destroyed in an Israeli strike yesterday.
Search efforts were ongoing today and it was unclear how many survivors or bodies were still under the rubble.
The state news agency NNA said efforts were still underway to search for survivors under the rubble of destroyed buildings in the attacks.
Israel has launched a massive air campaign in Lebanon since late September against what it claims are Hezbollah targets in an escalation from year-long cross-border warfare between Israel and the Lebanese group since the start of Israel’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip.
At least 3,050 people have been killed and nearly 13,700 injured in Israeli attacks since October 2023, according to Lebanese health authorities.
Israel expanded the conflict by launching a ground assault into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1 this year.
At least 37 people were killed in Israeli attacks across Lebanon on Tuesday, taking the overall death toll since last year to 3,050, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
A ministry statement added that 105 other people were wounded in the last day, taking the number of the injured to 13,658 since October of last year.
It said that 179 healthcare workers were killed and 306 others injured in Israeli attacks since last year.
At least 25 people were killed and 14 others injured in overnight Israeli airstrikes in central and southern Lebanon, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
A ministry statement said Israeli warplanes struck a building in Barja town in central Lebanon, killing 20 people and injuring 14 others.
The ministry expected the death toll to rise as many people are still under the rubble.
The state news agency NNA said the bodies of five people were removed from the rubble after an Israeli strike on a home in Chehabiyeh town in southern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, NNA said the Israeli army flew a military surveillance balloon over Baalbek in eastern Lebanon amid intensive Israeli drone activities in the Bekaa Valley.
Israeli airstrikes continued today, targeting various regions across Lebanon, resulting in numerous casualties and widespread destruction as the wide-scale Israeli aggression on the country enters its second month.
According to local reports, at least seven people were killed when an airstrike hit the town of Al-Ein, near the city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley.
The Governor of Baalbek-Hermel, Bachir Khodr, also confirmed that 30 people were killed and 35 others were injured in the region due to ongoing Israeli bombings throughout the day.
In the Dahieh district of Beirut, renewed Israeli airstrikes caused significant damage to buildings, infrastructure, and civilian facilities. Areas such as Haret Hreik, the Airport Road, and the American Neighborhood in southern Beirut were among the hardest hit.
Israeli fighter jets and artillery also targeted the cities of Baalbek and Nabatieh, as well as a number of towns and villages across southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, including Hermel, Deir Seryan, Boudai, Ansar, Taria, Taminin al-Tahta, Ram, Qara’a, Mashmasha, Kafr Dan, Mifdoun, Zoutar, Almaan, and Qusayr.
Other towns and villages in the southern and eastern regions were also hit, including Kafr Rumman, Shuqra, Amchki, Kafr Shuba, Mahrouna, Bent Jbeil, Anqoun, Ain Qana, Jwaya, Babliyeh, Jibshit, Deir Al-Qanoun al-Nahr, Al-Tiri, Al-Abbasiya, Sidiqeen, Khiam, Dbaal, Al-Ayn, Aaytit, Al-Bassiryah, Kafr Sire, Ain Baal, Ainatha, Kounine, and Hanin.
Meanwhile, several Israelis were injured in rocket fire from Lebanon on Wednesday as escalation continues to rise with Hezbollah, according to Israeli media.
The Israeli public broadcaster KAN said the injuries were reported after rockets hit the Avivim settlement in Upper Galilee in northern Israel.
According to Israeli Channel 12, about 50 rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Avivim, with at least 10 of them landing in the settlement.
The Israeli army, for its part, said that its air defenses intercepted a rocket and two drones fired from southern Lebanon towards central Israel.
Israeli Channel 7 said that around five rockets were fired by Hezbollah towards central Israel, with sirens sounding in the greater Tel Aviv area.
KAN said Spanish airline Air Europa canceled its flights to Israel after a rocket hit near Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv early Wednesday.
Hezbollah said Wednesday that it targeted two military bases and three sites in northern and central Israel with rockets.
The group also reported launching missile attacks on the city of Safed and nine northern Israeli settlements, along with shelling a group of soldiers at one settlement and hitting a tank at another.
In central Israel, Hezbollah stated that it launched a volley of precision rockets at the Tzrifin base near Ben Gurion Airport south of Tel Aviv, noting that the base “houses military training colleges.”
In northern Israel, the group reported targeting the “Rawayah base in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights with a missile strike,” emphasizing that the base is home to the 188th Israeli Army Armored Brigade.
Also in the occupied Golan, Hezbollah said it launched two missile strikes on the Yoav barracks and the Keila military camp.
The group added that it conducted a drone strike on the headquarters of the Nahal Brigade in the Galilee Division 91, hitting its target accurately.
Additionally, Hezbollah reported firing a guided missile at a house in the Metula settlement, where Israeli soldiers were holing up, resulting in casualties. The group also said it targeted a Merkava tank in the same settlement, setting it on fire and killing or injuring its crew.
In northern Israel, Hezbollah announced it fired multiple rocket salvos at the city of Safed and nine settlements: Biriyya, Katzrin, Meron, Bar Yohai, Rosh Pinna, Goren, Kiryat Shmona, Sasa, and Kfar Szold.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said it targeted a naval base near the Israeli city of Haifa with drones and missiles, the fourth attack on the base in as many weeks.
Hezbollah fighters “targeted the Stella Maris naval base northwest of Haifa with a salvo of high-quality missiles and a squadron of attack drones”, the group said in a statement.
At least 21 more Israeli soldiers were injured in clashes in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon in the last 24 hours, the army said on Wednesday.
Military figures released by the army showed that some 780 soldiers have been killed and 5,282 others injured since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oct. 7, 2023.
GAZA
Israel’s attacks in Gaza has killed at least 43,391 Palestinians and injured 102,347 since October 7, 2023.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Gaza Wednesday by Israeli indiscriminate bombings.
At least six Palestinians were killed Wednesday in two Israeli attacks in the war-torn Gaza Strip, a medical source said.
Four people lost their lives and several others were injured in an airstrike targeting civilians near an ambulance office in western Gaza City, the source said.
He added that two more people were killed in a drone strike on a gathering of citizens in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army launched fresh airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least 14 people, medical sources said.
Three people lost their lives, including two women, when Israeli fighter jets hit a house in eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, a medical source said.
Five other people were killed in another strike on a home in Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, the source added.
In the northern town of Beit Lahia, five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a home, another medical source said.
The source added that another Palestinian was killed and five others were injured in a strike targeting a school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Israeli forces also struck a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, injuring six people, including three children, another medical source said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army stepped up its ongoing ground offensive in northern Gaza, with scores of homes blown up in the areas of Beit Lahia and Jabalia.
The Israeli army laid a siege in northern Gaza last month, claiming it is trying to stop Palestinian resistance group Hamas from regrouping. Palestinians, however, accuse Israel of seeking to occupy the area and forcibly displace its residents.
The Israeli army launched fresh airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least eight people, a medical source said.
Three people lost their lives, including two women, when Israeli fighter jets hit a house in eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the source said.
At least five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a group of civilians in the Tal al-Zaatar area in the northern Gaza Strip, the official news agency Wafa reports.
The agency cited the al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia as saying that several casualties were brought to the facility following the attack.
Earlier, another Israeli drone strike killed four people and left multiple others injured in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City. The attack occurred near the Palestinian Red Crescent’s ambulance and emergency services headquarters.
“Emergency responders from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society stated that they transported the casualties to the Baptist Hospital [al-Ahli Arab Hospital] in Gaza City. As of now, no further details have been provided about the identities of the deceased or the extent of injuries sustained,” Wafa reported.
At least five Palestinians were killed this evening in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of civilians in the Tal al-Zaatar area, located in the northern Gaza Strip.
According to the Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, northern Gaza, the victims, along with several others injured, were brought to the facility following the attack. Medical teams confirmed the casualties and are attending to the wounded.
A Palestinian mother and her three children were killed today in the Israeli occupation’s bombing of a house in the town of Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip.
Local sources said that the Israeli occupation’s warplanes bombed a house belonging to the al-Radeei’ family, which led to the killing of the mother and her three children, noting that her husband is detained by the Israeli forces.
The Israeli occupation warplanes also launched an airstrike in the vicinity of the western roundabout in the town of Beit Lahia, while the occupation’s artillery fired its shells at Jabalia and the Beit Lahia project.
The UN on Wednesday warned about “deadly” living conditions in northern Gaza and said Palestinians are “starving while the world watches on.”
“For the past month, North Gaza has been under a near-total brutal siege,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said during a news conference, conveying Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Joyce Msuya’s, message.
“Israeli military ground operations have left Palestinians without the essentials to survive, forced them to flee for safety multiple times, and cut off their escape and supply routes,” according to the message by Msuya.
Noting that “living conditions are deadly” in northern Gaza, she stressed that “civilians are starving while the world watches on. These atrocities must stop.”
[Photo: Mother hugging her daughter as civilians, paramedics and Civil Defense Search and Rescue teams conduct search and rescue operations among the rubbles of collapsed building after Israeli attacks on Barja in the Chouf district of Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon on 05 11, 2024. At least 20 people were killed Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the town of Barja.
Photojournalist: Murat Şengül/ AA]
