By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, NNA, Wafa, The Muslim News):
LEBANON
Five people were injured in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Aitaroun in Lebanon’s Nabatieh Governorate on Thursday, as Israeli forces continue to violate the cease-fire agreement signed with Beirut last week.
The Israeli army onslaught on the town of Aitaroun in the Bint Jbeil district has injured five people, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported, without specifying the severity of the injuries.
Lebanese civil defense teams came under Israeli fire on Thursday while searching the rubble for victims, local media said.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency said Israeli artillery shelling targeted civil defense teams in Naqoura while searching the rubble of destroyed buildings in the area.
Nine bodies were retrieved by Civil Defense teams in the town of Chamaa, six in Bayyada, and one in Naqoura, the state news agency NNA reported.
The broadcaster said that efforts were ongoing to search for more victims under the rubble in the three southern towns.
The teams were forced to leave the area after Israeli forces detonated an explosive-laden drone nearby, NNA said.
There was no comment from the Israeli army on the report.
Early Thursday, civil defense teams recovered the bodies of 16 people from under the rubble in the southern towns of Shama, Biyyadah, and Naqoura.
In Lebanon, at least 4,047 people have been killed and 16,638 wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began.
Lebanon’s National News Agency is reporting that the drones are flying “at a very low altitude” over the capital and its suburbs.
Residents across Lebanon have reported hearing the buzzing of drones over the past week despite the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on November 27.
According to an Anadolu tally based on announcements from Lebanon’s official news agency, the Israeli army violated the cease-fire agreement with Lebanon eight times on Thursday, bringing the total number of breaches since the deal went into effect eight days ago to 137.
Meanwhile, Head of Hezbollah [Hizbullah] announced Thursday that the group is “allowing an opportunity” for the success of a cease-fire agreement with Israel, despite Tel Aviv violating the terms dozens of times.
Naim Qassem said in a televised speech that the Lebanese government is “responsible” for addressing the breaches through the mechanism tasked with monitoring the agreement’s implementation.
Israel “has committed more than 60 violations of the cease-fire agreement. The Lebanese government is responsible for following up on this, and the resistance is giving an opportunity for the success of the agreement,” said Qassem.
He added that the group had “approved” the “implementation mechanism” agreement for UN Security Council Resolution 1701, rather than a standalone new agreement. The resolution that was adopted Aug. 11, 2006, calls for a complete halt to hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel and the establishment of a weapons-free zone between the Blue Line — the de facto border between Lebanon and Israel — and the Litani River in southern Lebanon, with exceptions for the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping mission (UNIFIL).
GAZA
Gaza’s Ministry of Health says Israeli attacks on the enclave killed 48 Palestinians and wounded 201 in Gaza Strip in the latest 24-hour reporting period, pushing up the overall death toll since last year to 44,580, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Thursday.
A ministry statement added that some 105,739 others have been injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 48 people and injured 201 others in five massacres of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads, with rescuers unable to reach them,” it added.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have again bombed the so-called “safe zone” in Gaza’s al-Mawasi, killing at least 21 people and wounding dozens more, according to Atif al-Hout, the director of the Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis. Women and children were “incinerated” in the attack.
Several civilians were killed and many others injured in an Israeli airstrike late Thursday evening in the city of Beit Lahiya, located in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, according to local sources.
WAFA correspondent reported that Israeli fighter jets targeted a house belonging to the al-Muqayyad family, which was sheltering displaced members of the Al-Shalfooh family.
The assault resulted in multiple casualties, both fatalities and injuries, although the exact number is still being confirmed.
Two Palestinians Thursday evening were killed in a fresh Israeli airstrike on Kamal Adwan Hospital in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.
Earlier today, Israeli forces targeted the hospital, leaving a boy who was receiving treatment at the hospital dead and injuring 12 patients and medical staff members.
Meanwhile, an Israeli drone conducted an airstrike targeting the perimeter of the hospital, killing a young man in his 30s.
At least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured on Thursday, as Israeli airstrikes targeted various locations across the Gaza Strip, including northern Gaza and the city of Rafah in the south.
Local sources reported that Israeli drones hit water tanks at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza. The airstrikes also targeted a house sheltering displaced people near the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, located in the northern Gaza Strip, resulting in the killing of at least seven individuals and the injury of several others.
In a separate incident, an Israeli military drone struck a group of civilians near the Shuja’iyya Cemetery, east of Gaza City, killing three Palestinians and injuring several others.
Further south, two more Palestinians were killed when an Israeli drone targeted a group of people in the Khirbat al-Adas area, north of Rafah.
Four Palestinians were injured when Israeli drones shelled the courtyard of Kamal Adwan Hospital, another medical source said.
Three people were also injured when an Israeli drone shelled the rooftop of the Indonesian Hospital in the same area.
In southern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike on Rafah killed two Palestinians, the source said.
The Israeli army on Thursday admitted that it struck tents housing displaced Palestinians in the al-Mawasi area, which has been designated as a “safe zone” in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. The airstrike killed 23 Palestinians and injured dozens more.
According to a statement from the army, the airstrike targeted Hamas operatives in what it claimed was a “humanitarian area” in Khan Younis. It added that the “operation,” which was carried out on the direction of military intelligence and the Shin Bet, killed “Osama Ghanim, a senior operative in Hamas’ Internal Security Forces.”
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is warning that the weather conditions in Gaza are worsening the dire humanitarian situation for displaced Palestinians who are having to live in tents without blankets and warm clothing.
The IRC said that in areas where it operates, at least 40 percent of tents are in the Asdaa camp and 45 percent in the Ard Fayyad camp due to heavy rains that have caused severe flooding.
Bart Witteveen, the IRC’s country director for the occupied Palestinian territory, said, alongside the dropping temperatures, Israeli restrictions on fuel have shut down “critical services” on waste collection and sewage management, which contributes to the spread of disease amid flooding.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society has said that Israel is holding 46 bodies of Palestinians who were killed in Israeli prisons since the Gaza war erupted.
It said in a statement on Telegram that a total of 57 Palestinians were killed in Israeli prisons since October 7 last year and their names were announced by the Israeli authorities.
WEST BANK
The UN on Thursday reported “a sharp increase in attacks” by illegal Israeli settlers during olive harvest season in the occupied West Bank.
“In the West Bank, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports a sharp increase in attacks by Israeli settlers since the start of the olive harvest season in October, which is threatening the safety and livelihoods of Palestinian farmers,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference.
He said that “in just three days late last month, settlers vandalized more than 700 Palestinian-owned trees and saplings, mostly olive, in Palestinian villages in Hebron, Ramallah and Salfit.”
Saying that OCHA documented around 260 illegal Israeli settler attacks linked to the harvest season across nearly 90 communities in the occupied West Bank, Dujarric said: Most of these incidents resulted in casualties, property damage or both.”
“This marks at least a three-fold increase compared to each of the preceding three years,” he added.
Meanwhile, Israeli army rounded up 28 more Palestinians in military raids in the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ affairs groups on Thursday.
Two women were among the detainees in the raids that targeted several towns and cities in the occupied territory, including Hebron, Ramallah, Tulkarem, Tubas, and Nablus, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
Among the detainees was also an injured Palestinian, who was kidnapped by the Israeli army from his hospital in Nablus city, the statement added.
“The raids were marked by abuse, threats against detainees and their families, and acts of vandalism and destruction on citizens’ homes,” it added.
The new arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October last year to over 11,900, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.
The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.
Wafa reported that several Palestinians suffered suffocation after Israeli forces used tear gas in Beit Furik town, east of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
Citing medical sources, the agency said “several residents of the town suffocated from excessive tear gas after Israeli occupation forces fired barrages of canisters in the course of confrontations in the town” during a raid.
[Photo: A view of damage after Israeli indiscriminate attacks, on December 4, 2024 in Gaza City, Gaza. The Israeli army attacked a settlement in the Yarmouk neighborhood of Gaza City, north of the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding Palestinians. Palestinians inspected the buildings destroyed or damaged in the attack. Photojournalist: Dawoud Abo Alkas/AA]