By Abdul Adil
GAZA
Israeli warplanes launched a fresh wave of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least 35 more Palestinians and injured 109 others, in the last 24 hours, pushing up the number of Palestinians killed since October 2023 to 52,400, and 118,014 injured, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
Three people were killed and several others injured in an airstrike in Jabalia Nazla in the northern Gaza Strip, a medical source said, according to Anadolu Agency.
Twelve more people, including children, were killed in three separate strikes targeting homes in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the source added.
One more Palestinian was killed and several people were injured in another strike on a home in Bani Suhaila town, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Artillery shelling was also reported in the eastern parts of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, but no information was yet available about injuries.
Medics retrieved from the rubble the body of a Palestinian killed in an earlier Israeli airstrike in the Zeitoun neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.
Two more Palestinians died of injuries sustained in earlier Israeli attacks in central Gaza, a medical source said.
The Israeli army renewed its assault on Gaza on March 18, shattering a Jan. 19 ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with the Hamas.
WEST BANK
Israeli settlers Wednesday evening torched Palestinian-owned farmlands and stabbed a Palestinian in the town of Duma, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to local sources, reported Wafa News Agency.
They said that Israeli settlers descended upon the town and set fire to olive groves, which had been providing Palestinian farmers and their families with their livelihood and sustenance, in the western part of the town.
The assailants attacked a 27-year-old resident, stabbing him in the back.
The casualty was rushed to a nearby medical center for urgent treatment. There was no immediate information about his medical condition.
SYRIA
A source from the Syrian Interior Ministry told Reuters that an Israeli strike on the outskirts of the Syrian capital has killed one member of the country’s new security forces.
Israel said it had struck an “extremist group” preparing to attack members of the Arab Druze minority in Sahnaya, on the edge of Damascus.
But the Syrian Interior Ministry source disputed that claim and said Syrian security forces were looking to put an end to clashes in Sahnaya between armed groups operating outside state control.
LEBANON
President Joseph Aoun has urged a US military delegation, headed by Major-General Jasper Jeffers, the co-chairman of the cessation of hostilities implementation and monitoring mechanism, to pressure Israel to withdraw from areas it still controls in the country and to release Lebanese prisoners.
Aoun told the delegation that the Lebanese army is carrying out its work along the border with Israel, where troops have been confiscating weapons and preventing armed presence.
Meanwhile, France on Wednesday condemned Israel’s recent airstrikes on the Lebanese capital of Beirut, urging the Israeli government to withdraw its troops from five positions in southern Lebanon.
Paris “strongly condemns” Israel’s April 27 attacks on Beirut, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said at a weekly press briefing, emphasizing that all parties must strictly adhere to the cease-fire agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
“France, therefore, calls on Israel to exercise restraint and to withdraw as soon as possible from the five positions it still occupies on Lebanese territory,” he said.
Aoun underlined the need for a more active role by the committee to pressure Israel to end its assaults on Lebanon, withdraw from five border hilltops, and release detained Lebanese nationals, the presidency said in a statement.
He said the Lebanese army is fulfilling its duties and responsibilities in southern Lebanon, especially in the areas south of the Litani River, where it actively confiscates weapons and ammunition, and removes all forms of armed presence.
The five-nation oversight committee comprises the US, France, Lebanon, Israel, and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Agencies
[Photo: Displaced Palestinians continue to endure severe humanitarian conditions in Jabalia Refugee Camp, northern Gaza on April 30, 2025. As Israeli airstrikes and blockade persist, families are forced to live in makeshift shelters and amid the rubble of destroyed buildings, lacking access to basic necessities such as shelter, food, and clean water.
Photojournalist:Mahmoud İssa/AA]
