By Abdul Adil
(AA, Wafa, NNA, Al Jazeera, The Muslim News):
GAZA
At least 47 more Palestinians were killed in indiscriminate Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since 7 October last year to 43,712, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Wednesday.
A ministry statement added that some 103,258 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“The Israeli occupation has committed seven massacres of families in the last 24 hours, resulting in 47 deaths and 182 injuries,” the ministry said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescue teams are unable to reach them,” it added.
Meanwhile, at least nine people, including children, were killed in two Israeli airstrikes in a designated “safe zone” in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to a medical source.
Israeli fighter jets hit a house in al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, leaving eight people dead, including children, the source said.
One person was also killed and several people were injured in another strike near a tent encampment in al-Mawasi, which was designated by the Israeli army as a “safe zone” for displaced civilians in Gaza, the source added.
Witnesses said the airstrikes have caused widespread panic, particularly among women and children.
Earlier, at least 21 Palestinians were killed as the Israeli army intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to medical sources.
A medical source said five people lost their lives and several others were injured when Israeli forces shelled a group of people outside Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
Eleven people were also killed in a series of strikes targeting several homes in northern Gaza, the source added.
Israeli gunboats also opened fire on the western part of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, leaving two people dead, another medical source said.
A drone strike in Gaza City killed two more people in the Shujaiya neighborhood east of the city, the source said.
Another Palestinian was killed in drone strike in the southern city of Rafah, he added.
The Israeli army targeted a roadside stall selling goods in the Qizan Abu Rashwan area south of Khan Younis, killing two Palestinians and injuring several others, eyewitnesses told Anadolu.
In another Israeli attack, a medical source told Anadolu that three Palestinians were killed and 10 others injured, most of them children, in an airstrike on a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
According to the source, one of the casualties arrived at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat as “remains” while 10 others were treated for injuries.
Two other victims’ “body parts” were transported to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, according to eyewitness accounts.
In Deir al-Balah, also in central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike hit a tent for displaced people, killing two Palestinians and wounding six others, including children, according to a medical source.
At least five Palestinians were killed and several others injured, including children, in Israeli airstrikes in southern and central Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
There was another new attack in the so-called safe humanitarian area in al-Mawasi, in the western part of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis region, where Israeli forces just targeted the Abu Taha family home.
At least eight Palestinians were killed. According to the civil defence teams and the ambulances in that area, there are still people trapped under the rubble. There were dozens of Palestinians in this house.
The US says its support to Israel will continue after a 30-day deadline expired for Israel to boost aid to Gaza or face cuts to weapons funding. Aid groups say Israel has worsened conditions in the enclave during the period.
WEST BANK
A Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday for allegedly attempting to take a soldier’s weapon in the occupied West Bank, local media said.
The Israeli public broadcaster KAN said the incident took place when some 100 Palestinians gathered at the site of a car accident near the Al-Aroub refugee camp in the southern West Bank.
KAN said a soldier opened fire on a Palestinian man after he tried to take his weapon, leaving him dead.
The Israeli army has opened an investigation into the incident.
The Palestinian official news agency Wafa, citing security sources, confirmed that a Palestinian was shot by Israeli forces at a bypass road in the West Bank.
At least 12 more Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces in military raids in the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ affairs groups on Wednesday.
A child was among the detainees in the raids that targeted several towns in the occupied territory, including Ramallah, Jenin, Qalqilya, and Nablus, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
“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 11,700, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.
The figure doesn’t include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.
The Israeli army demolished three Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to a local activist and media.
Military forces razed a house in the village of Kardala in the northern Jordan Valley for the lack of a building permit, Moataz Bisharat, an activist, told Anadolu.
Another home was brought down in the town of Beit Ummar in the southern West Bank, the official news agency Wafa reported.
Israeli bulldozers also demolished a building used for tourist purposes in the town of Zawiya, west of Salfit city in the northern West Bank, the broadcaster added.
Israel widely uses the pretext of lack of construction permits to demolish Palestinian homes, especially in Area C in the occupied West Bank, which constitutes around 60% of its space.
Meanwhile, illegal Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers on Tuesday as they harvested olives in the village of Yasuf, near Salfit in the northern West Bank, according to the head of the village council.
Wail Abu Madi told Anadolu that a group of illegal settlers assaulted Mohammed Sabri Al-Shayeb and his son in the Harika Abdullah area in the northeast, causing bruises and other injuries.
He added that the illegal settlers forced the farmers off their land and stole harvested olives, along with agricultural equipment.
The settlers reportedly came from the nearby settlements of Taffuh and Nevehemiah — built on Yasuf.
Abu Madi noted that the settlers previously carried out attacks, including cutting down trees, burning vehicles and harassing residents, in an apparent effort to push locals off their land for settlement expansion.
Attacks by illegal Israeli settlers on Palestinian farmers and fields are frequent and often intensify during the annual olive harvest season — from October through November.
More than 720,000 settlers live in illegal settlements across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to Israeli estimates.
LEBANON
In Lebanon, at least 3,295 people have been killed and 14,237 wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began
At least eight people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential apartment in in Mount Lebanon province, east of Beirut early Wednesday, Lebanese media said.
Fifteen other people were injured in the attack that targeted Dawhet Aramoun area, the state news agency NNA reported.
Damage was reported to several buildings in the area.
Israeli warplanes also staged a series of airstrikes in southern Beirut targeting the neighborhoods of Haret Hreik, Bir al-Abed, Laylaki and Ghobeiry.
Israeli warplanes on Wednesday morning carried out a series airstrikes on areas in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported.
Airstrikes targeted the areas of Haret Hreik, Bir al-Abed, Laylaki and Ghobeiry. The Dar El-Hawraa Medical Center in Haret Hreik was also struck.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah [Hizbullah] said Tuesday that it targeted the HaHotrim military base in northern Israel, marking the first such attack since hostilities erupted over 13 months ago.
In a series of statements, the group announced that its fighters hit the base, a key Israeli Air Force facility, in the first such attack since Oct. 8, 2023.
The base, located 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) south of the city of Haifa, includes air transport and engine manufacturing units. “We targeted it with a salvo of advanced missiles,” the group said.
The Lebanese armed group says its fighters launched rockets at a group of Israeli soldiers east of the Maroun al-Ras village in the Bint Jbeil district of southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate.
The attack was carried out at 05:00am (02:00 GMT), Hezbollah said in a statement on Telegram.
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.
The Israeli army said Wednesday that it detected the launch of 20 rockets and four drones from Lebanon into northern Israel as escalation continues to rise with Hezbollah.
A military statement said that 20 rockets were fired toward the Galilee region, triggering air-raid sirens in the area.
The army said most of the rockets were intercepted, while some projectiles hit open areas.
No injuries or damage were reported.
The army also said that its warplanes shot down four combat drones fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel.
The Lebanese group Hezbollah, for its part, confirmed that it fired a salvo of rockets targeting Israeli soldiers in the east of Maroun al-Ras town in southern Lebanon and in the settlement of Sa’sa’ in northern Israel.
The group said that its fighters had forced two Israeli spy drones to leave Lebanese airspace by targeting them with surface-to-air missiles.
[Photo: Relatives mourn during the funeral ceremony of near and dear ones by Israeli army’s indiscriminate attacks on the town of Joun, Chouf district, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon on November 13, 2024. At least 15 people, including 8 women and 4 children, were killed in the Israeli army’s attack. Photojournalist: Murat Şengül/AA]
