By Abdul Adil
(AA, NNA, Al Jazeera, Wafa):
GAZA
At least 37 Palestinians, including children and displaced people, were killed and 87 injured Wednesday in Israeli indiscriminate bombings targeting shelters and homes across the Gaza Strip pushing up the overall death toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since October 7 last year to 43,985, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Wednesday.
A ministry statement added that some 104,092 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“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 12 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the area of Jabalia in northern Gaza, and at least 10 people remain missing as rescue operations continue.
Another man was killed in tank shelling nearby, medics said.
Another Israeli air strike killed seven Palestinians, including a girl, in al-Mawasi, a designated “humanitarian zone” in western Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
A separate air strike on a house in the Remal neighbourhood of Gaza City killed four people while another strike killed three Palestinians and wounded at least 20 at a school sheltering displaced families in the central Gaza Strip.
In the Sabra suburb of Gaza City, an Israeli air strike targeted a Palestinian Civil Defence team during a rescue operation, killing one staff member and wounding three, it said.
In the nearby Zeitoun neighbourhood, an Israeli strike on a house killed two people, medics said.
In Rafah in the south, medics said three men were killed and several others wounded in two Israeli air strikes.
At least five Palestinians were killed and 15 others injured on Wednesday evening in an Israeli airstrike targeting northern Gaza, according to local medics.
WAFA correspondent reported the airstrike hit a civilian area in the Beit Lahiya project, located in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The five victims were killed instantly, and several others were injured in the attack.
Earlier in the day, a series of Israeli airstrikes across Gaza resulted in significant casualties. In the afternoon, at least 20 Palestinians were reported killed, and many others injured in separate bombings across the region.
Medical sources confirmed that three individuals lost their lives in a targeted Israeli strike on a group of civilians in the Khirbat al-Addas area, east of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The bodies were transferred to the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis for identification.
In central Gaza, six people, including displaced families, were killed in a bombing of the Khalid Ibn al-Walid School in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The school had been sheltering several displaced families fleeing the ongoing Israeli attacks.
Elsewhere, a separate Israeli shelling targeted a refugee center inside the Awani al-Harthani School in northern Gaza, killing three people, including two children, while several others were wounded.
Additionally, a drone strike hit the area of Tal al-Zaatar in northern Gaza, injuring one civilian after a missile was dropped on residential homes.
In the southern part of Gaza, Civil Defense reported that two Palestinians were killed and another injured when an Israeli drone targeted a gathering of civilians in the Al-Janineh neighborhood, east of Rafah.
Eight Palestinians, including four children, were also killed in Israeli shelling that struck displaced peoples’ tents in the western part of Khan Younis, according to Palestinian paramedics who spoke to Anadolu.
The bodies of the victims were later transferred to the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
In Gaza City, a medical source confirmed that four Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, south of the city.
Additionally, one Palestinian was killed and another injured in a separate airstrike targeting a civilian gathering in the city’s central Thawra Street.
Five additional people lost their lives when an Israeli fighter jet targeted a residential home in the Jabalia al-Nazla area of northern Gaza, according to witness accounts.
The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza says 17 malnourished children arrived at the facility, which lacks the supplies to treat them. Israeli forces fired on the building and are not allowing any people or medicine in.
UNSC resolution on Gaza vetoed by US
The Palestinian presidency condemned a US veto at the UN Security Council on Wednesday that blocked a resolution that demanded a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian news agency, Wafa, quoted a statement from the presidency that said, “The US administration’s use of the veto for the fourth time encourages the Israeli occupation to continue its crimes against the Palestinian people and our Lebanese brothers.”
The statement said the use of the veto emboldens Israel to defy “all international legitimacy resolutions and international law, foremost among them the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice issued by the UN General Assembly, which called for halting the aggression, ending the occupation, and withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.”
“This makes the US responsible for the continuation of the aggression against our people and our land,” it added.
The US vetoed the resolution earlier Wednesday that also urged the prevention of the starvation of Palestinians.
The draft resolution, submitted by 10 elected members of the Council — Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Malta, Mozambique, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and Switzerland — received 14 votes.
It “demanded an immediate, unconditional, and permanent cease-fire to be respected by all parties,” while reiterating the “demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” as it urged the Security Council to fulfill its responsibility to maintain international peace and security.
The US previously vetoed three Security Council draft resolutions that called for an urgent cease-fire in Gaza — in October 2023, December 2023 and in February, while abstaining in votes on other draft resolutions.
WEST BANK
The Governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rob, confirmed tonight that two Palestinian young men have been killed by Israeli occupation forces in the town of Kafr Dan, located to the west of Jenin city in the northern West Bank.
Despite efforts by paramedics to resuscitate him, he succumbed to his injuries. Another young man was also injured in the chest and was taken to Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin, where his condition was described as stable.
Their bodies were subsequently detained by Israeli forces, raising the total number of fatalities in the district to eight, as the Israeli assault on Jenin city, its refugee camp, and surrounding towns continued for over 48 hours.
Abu al-Rob reported that the two men, whose identities have not yet been revealed, were killed when Israeli forces targeted their vehicle with an airstrike and later besieged a nearby house in Kafr Dan. As of now, Israeli forces have not returned the bodies.
Earlier in the day, the Palestinian Red Crescent announced that one young man was killed after being shot in the chest during an Israeli military incursion into Kafr Dan.
Meantime, local sources reported that Israeli forces set fire to four vehicles in the Wadi Hassan area near the town during the assault, and at one point, an Israeli military unit seized an ambulance belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent in Kafr Dan, opening fire near it.
The Israeli offensive has left widespread destruction across Jenin. Infrastructure, including water and electricity networks, has been severely damaged. Israeli forces also targeted civilian homes, setting four houses and a commercial shop on fire in the Jenin refugee camp and the surrounding neighborhoods.
Israeli forces have also targeted emergency responders, repeatedly obstructing Palestinian Red Crescent teams’ efforts to evacuate the wounded from the camp. On multiple occasions, Israeli troops detained ambulance vehicles and used the crews as human shields during their operations.
As of now, the Israeli military has withdrawn from parts of Jenin city and the refugee camp, but the damage caused by the assault remains significant.
LEBANON
At least 14 people were killed Tuesday in Israeli attacks on Lebanon, bringing the death toll since last October to 3,558, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Wednesday.
It added that 87 people were wounded in the last 24 hours, raising the number of injuries to 15,123.
Another three have been wounded in an Israeli strike on the town of Maarakeh in Tyre district, NNA said, adding that the figure was an initial toll.
Civil defence teams are currently working on evacuations amid the destruction, NNA said.
An Israeli raid targeted a military vehicle belonging to the Lebanese army, resulting in one civilian and two wounded on the Burj al-Muluk-Qalaa road in southern Lebanon, while three army personnel were killed last night as a result of the occupation targeting a Lebanese army center in the town of Sarafand in the south.
Five civilians were also killed as a result of the Israeli raids on the towns of Ma’arka and Zifta in the south.
The Israeli air raids on the towns of Kafr Malki, Ain Qana, Haboush and Zoutar al-Sharqiya last night led to the killing of more than 10 citizens.
The occupation warplanes and artillery bombed the towns of Kafr Shuba, Khiyam, Shebaa, Ain Baal, Deir Qanoun, Ras al-Ain, al-Jabbin, al-Mansouri, Qana, Aitat and Zebqin in southern Lebanon.
It noted that a separate strike on the town of Qlaileh killed one person.
Lebanon’s National News Agency, meanwhile, reported intense clashes and Israeli attempts to advance from the outskirts of Aalma El Chaeb toward the towns of Shama and Biyyadah in southern Lebanon.
It said confrontation between Hezbollah and Israeli army erupted while Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem was delivering a video address.
The news agency also said that “Israeli airstrikes are targeting the areas of Wadi Hamoul and Labbouneh in Naqoura in southern Lebanon, along with artillery and phosphorus shelling.”
The escalation comes as US envoy Amos Hochstein visits Lebanon, despite Washington’s unwavering support for Israel in its genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Hochstein is set to travel to Israel later Wednesday in an effort to broker a cease-fire deal to end Israeli military actions against Lebanon.
SYRIA
At least 36 people were killed and more than 50 others injured in an Israeli airstrike in the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria on Wednesday, local media said.
The state news agency SANA, citing a military source, said Israeli warplanes carried out a strike from the direction of the Al-Tanf area in western Syria targeting several buildings in the city.
Extensive material damage was reported in the area.
Palmyra’s ancient city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was seized by ISIL (ISIS) in 2015 and partially destroyed before it was recaptured by the Syrian army.
Syrian state media earlier reported that the attack targeted residential buildings and an industrial zone in the city.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the report as of yet.
[Photo: Relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on the Mevasi area, mourn as the lifeless bodies are brought the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 21, 2024. Photojournalist: Doaa Albaz/AA]
