By Abdul Adil
(AA, Wafa, Al Jazeera, NNA, The Muslim News):
LEBANON
The death toll from Israel’s indiscriminate attack on central Beirut rises to 29 as rescuers continue to comb the rubble for survivors. At least 66 others were wounded.
In Lebanon, at least 3,754 people have been killed and 15,626 wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began.
Lebanon’s state media report a plethora of Israeli air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs after the Israeli army gave short notice for civilians to flee.
Loud explosions were heard with car alarms going off throughout one street in Lebanon capital.
“A series of violent strikes are targeting Haret Hreik, Bir al-Abed and Ghobeiri in the southern suburbs of Beirut,” the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
The raids “caused massive destruction over a large geographical area” of the Kafaat district, NNA said. There were no immediate reports of casualties in Sunday’s strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been largely emptied of their residents during the fighting.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee earlier warned that the military would strike “Hezbollah facilities and interests” in southern Beirut.
According to Israeli media, the Lebanese group Hezbollah launched nearly 250 rockets at central and northern Israel.
Three Israelis were injured in a new rocket barrage from Lebanon on Sunday as escalation continues to rise between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli media said.
A military statement said 30 rockets were fired from Lebanese territory into the Galilee region in northern Israel, triggering air-raid sirens in the area.
The Israeli army said eight more rockets were launched toward the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, with most of the projectiles intercepted while others impacted open areas.
Israel’s Hayom newspaper said a rocket hit a factory in Ma’alot Tarshiha in Western Galilee, causing damage. A woman also sustained light injuries from rocket shrapnel in the area.
Two more Israelis were injured after a rocket struck a building in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, according to Channel 12.
The attack led to a temporary halt in flights at Ben Gurion Airport in central Israel, the public broadcaster KAN reported.
Later, Channel 14 reported that about 250 rockets in total were launched at northern Israel from Lebanon.
It said “sirens were activated in hundreds of cities and towns following the heavy barrage of rockets being fired one after another from Lebanon to Israel.”
Lebanese group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted Ma’alot Tarshiha with a barrage of rockets.
Israel has engaged in cross-border warfare with Lebanon, launching an air campaign in late September against what it claims are Hezbollah targets.
The Israeli army on Sunday ordered the evacuation of residents from buildings in Hadath and Borj al-Barajneh 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.”
“To all residents in the southern suburb area, specifically in the buildings marked on the attached maps and nearby buildings in the Hadath and Borj al-Barajneh areas,” Adraee added.
He claimed the targeted areas housed “facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah,” signaling further Israeli strikes in the region.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel on Sunday of rejecting all efforts to reach a cease-fire with Lebanon, following an attack that killed one Lebanese soldier and injured 18 others in southern Lebanon.
The army said that the military casualties occurred after Israeli warplanes struck an army post in the town of Al-Amiriya early Sunday.
The Israeli attack “represents a direct bloody message rejecting all ongoing efforts and contacts to reach a cease-fire, strengthen the army’s presence in the south, and implement UN Resolution 1701,” Mikati said in a statement.
“This direct aggression is added to a series of repeated attacks on the army and Lebanese civilians,” he added.
The US, Israel’s main ally, is mediating between Israel and Lebanon to reach a cease-fire deal to end more than a year of attacks between Hezbollah and Israel.
“As it turned against a US-French call for a cease-fire in September, Israel now writes its refusal to any possible solution with Lebanese blood,” Mikati said.
The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah says it attacked Israeli soldiers in the town of Chamaa with a “suicide drone”.
Hezbollah also said it targeted Israeli troops south of the city of Khiam – where there have been fierce battles in the past few days – in a drone strike.
It gave no casualty figures, and the Israeli military didn’t immediately comment.
GAZA
At least 35 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 44,211, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Sunday.
A ministry statement added that some 104,567 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 35 people and injured 94 others in four massacres of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
At least six Palestinians, including two children, were killed on Sunday in fresh Israeli airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip, a medical source said.
Fighter jets hit a house in the Bureij refugee camp, leaving four people dead, the source said.
Two children also lost their lives while several people were injured in another strike targeting a tent in the Maghazi refugee camp, the source added.
Artillery shelling was also reported in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, but no information was yet available about injuries.
More than 1,000 doctors and nurses have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since last year, local authorities said on Sunday.
“Over 310 other medical personnel were arrested, tortured, and executed in prisons,” Gaza’s government media office said in a statement.
“The Israeli army also prevented the entry of medical supplies, health delegations, and hundreds of surgeons into Gaza,” it added.
The media office accused the Israeli army of systematically targeting hospitals as part of a plan to undermine the healthcare system in Gaza.
“Hospitals have been a declared target for the Israeli army, which bombed, besieged, and stormed them, killing doctors and nurses, injuring others after directly targeting them,” the statement said.
The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, was injured in an Israeli airstrike on the facility and its surrounding area in northern Gaza on Saturday.
On Thursday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced Sunday that it clashed with Israeli soldiers, many of whom were killed or injured, in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
Fighters “engaged” with an infantry Zionist force of 10 soldiers from point-blank range in the Al-Janina neighborhood, the military wing said in a statement.
In separate statement, it said fighters “targeted a military vehicle with a Yassin 105 missile north of Awad Tower in Rafah.”
Israel began a military operation in Rafah on May 6, 2024, taking control of the Rafah Crossing despite international warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of such actions.
WEST BANK
At least 15 Palestinians were injured by shrapnel of an Israeli interceptor missile in the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Sunday, medics said.
The Red Crescent Society said the injuries ranged between light and moderate after the missile shrapnel fell on houses in the Tulkarem refugee camp.
The Israeli army said early Sunday that sirens had sounded in central Israel and settlements near Tulkarem and Qalqilya in the northern West Bank following rocket fire from Lebanon.
The head of the Popular Committee for Services in Tulkarm camp Faisal Salama told WAFA that 15 people, including women, were injured by shrapnel from a rocket that fell on an abandoned house belonging to al-Sheikh Ali family in al-Murabba area of the camp.
He added that the injured were transferred to the city’s Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital. Their condition was described as moderate to minor.
Local sources indicated that the source of the rocket wasn’t immediately determined whether it was fired from Lebanon or from the interceptor missiles launched by Israel.
[Photo: A man removes a water puddle near his tent at a tent city set up for displaced Palestinians at Palestine Stadium, as the Palestinians who take refuge in tents struggle with cold and rainy weather in Gaza City, Gaza on November 24, 2024. Photojournalist: Osama Abdul Wahhab Abu Rabee/AA]
