(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa): The death toll from Israel’s attacks on Lebanon since last October has surged to 2,634, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Friday.
A ministry statement said 41 people were killed and 133 others injured in nationwide Israeli attacks on Thursday, raising the number of injured to 12,252.
Israeli warplanes on Thursday carried out 125 airstrikes, most of them in southern Lebanon, according to the ministry.
At least two Israelis were killed and others injured in a rocket attack from Lebanon targeting northern Israel on Friday.
According to Israeli media, some of the rockets hit the Majd al-Krum area, while others landed in open areas in northern Israel.
The Times of Israel news website quoted medical sources confirming that two people who were critically injured in the rocket attack on Majd al-Krum have died of their injuries.
Hezbollah says it killed and wounded a dozen Israeli soldiers on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese town of Odaisseh as fierce ground battles continue.
“At 5:20pm on Friday [14:20 GMT] a Zionist force consisting of 12 soldiers was targeted with a guided missile that inflicted confirmed injuries. After 20 minutes, a Hummer military vehicle with four soldiers inside intervened to support the first force. It was also hit with a guided missile, which led to their deaths and injuries,” the armed group said in a statement.
Israel’s army has sustained significant losses in recent days in border fighting with Hezbollah. At least 10 Israeli soldiers were killed in attacks in the past 24 hours with dozens more wounded.
Earlier, the Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom said its medical teams treated nine people in Majd al-Krum from the rocket firing, including those who later died.
Israeli warplanes conducted an air raid early Friday on a hotel housing journalists in the south of the Lebanese capital Beirut, killing three of them, state-run media reported.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said the fighter jets targeted a hotel in the town of Hasbaya where the journalists were staying.
Initial reports identified the three journalists as Al-Manar TV cameraman Wissam Qassem, Al-Mayadeen TV cameraman Ghassan Najjar, and Al-Mayadeen technician Mohammad Reda.
Several journalists and photographers from other channels were also injured.
Lebanon’s Minister of Information Ziad Makary stated that “the Israeli enemy waited for the journalists’ nightly break to strike them while they were asleep.”
“This is an assassination with premeditated intent as there were 18 journalists present representing seven media institutions,” he added.
The minister emphasized that “this is a war crime.”
Separately, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad announced on Friday that 11 journalists have been killed and eight others were injured in ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since last October.
Speaking at a press conference in Beirut, Abiad said: “There have been 55 Israeli attacks on hospitals across Lebanon, 36 of which were direct strikes.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it detected some 30 rockets launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel, claiming to have intercepted some while others impacted in open areas.
The Lebanese Hezbollah group, for its part, confirmed the launch of a rocket salvo toward areas in Safed and Karmiel adjacent to Majd al-Krum.
At least two Israelis were killed and others injured in a rocket attack from Lebanon targeting northern Israel on Friday.
According to Israeli media, some of the rockets hit the Majd al-Krum area, while others landed in open areas in northern Israel.
The Times of Israel news website quoted medical sources confirming that two people who were critically injured in the rocket attack on Majd al-Krum have died of their injuries.
Earlier, the Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom said its medical teams treated nine people in Majd al-Krum from the rocket firing, including those who later died.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it detected some 30 rockets launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel, claiming to have intercepted some while others impacted in open areas.
The Lebanese Hezbollah group, for its part, confirmed the launch of a rocket salvo toward areas in Safed and Karmiel adjacent to Majd al-Krum.
Hezbollah said on Friday it targeted an Israeli Merkava tank on the outskirts of the town of Marwahin in southern Lebanon, resulting in a crew member being killed and another wounded.
The tank is said to have been hit by a missile, causing it to catch fire.
The group said it also fired a barrage of rockets at the Karmiel settlement in northern Israel.
It added that fighters also targeted Israeli forces with multiple rocket strikes in the vicinity of the Al Marj site, north of Kfar Giladi, and in areas between Misgav Am and Odaisseh, as well as the eastern outskirts of the town of Taybeh and the Al-Malkiyya settlement.
Israeli army confirmed that 30 rockets launched from Lebanon aimed at the Galilee region in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Channel 12 in Israel said the military tracked the launch of 10 rockets from Lebanon targeting the Karmiel settlement.
GAZA
The UN human rights chief on Friday said Israel’s practices in northern Gaza could amount to “atrocity crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Describing what is happening in the north of the strip today as “the darkest moment of the Gaza conflict,” Volker Turk called on the world leaders to act in a statement.
“The bombing in North Gaza is non-stop,” he said. “The Israeli military has ordered hundreds of thousands to move, with no guarantees of return. But there is no safe way to leave: the bombs continue to fall; the Israeli military is separating families and detaining many people; and people fleeing have been reportedly shot at.”
“Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day. The Israeli Government’s policies and practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians,” he said, and warned: “We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”
Stressing that there is “extremely limited” access to the north of Gaza, the high commissioner said: “Next to no aid has reached the area in weeks, with unlawful restrictions remaining, and many are now facing starvation.”
He noted that already over 150,000 people are reportedly dead, wounded, or missing in Gaza.
The UN human rights chief on Friday said Israel’s practices in northern Gaza could amount to “atrocity crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Describing what is happening in the north of the strip today as “the darkest moment of the Gaza conflict,” Volker Turk called on the world leaders to act in a statement.
“The bombing in North Gaza is non-stop,” he said. “The Israeli military has ordered hundreds of thousands to move, with no guarantees of return. But there is no safe way to leave: the bombs continue to fall; the Israeli military is separating families and detaining many people; and people fleeing have been reportedly shot at.”
“Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day. The Israeli Government’s policies and practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians,” he said, and warned: “We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”
Stressing that there is “extremely limited” access to the north of Gaza, the high commissioner said: “Next to no aid has reached the area in weeks, with unlawful restrictions remaining, and many are now facing starvation.”
At least four Palestinians were killed and several others were injured on Friday in an Israeli attack that targeted a gathering of civilians and a school sheltering displaced individuals in northern Gaza.
Medical sources told Anadolu Agency that four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike that struck a group of civilians near Al-Qassam Mosque in the Beit Lahia area.
In a separate incident, Israeli artillery targeted the Halima Al-Sadia School in Jabalia, which has been housing displaced residents, resulting in multiple injuries.
Israeli forces laid siege in the north about three weeks ago, attacking from air and ground, surrounding hospitals and refugee shelters, and ordering residents to evacuate.
A devastating Israeli airstrike early Friday morning in Khan Younis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, has resulted in the murder of 28 civilians, predominantly women and children, according to local sources.
The sources reported that the Israeli military targeted a residential home in the Al-Manara area of Khan Younis. The attack not only led to significant loss of life but also left dozens injured, many of whom are receiving medical treatment for various wounds.
Last night, Israeli occupation forces carried out an airstrike on a residential complex in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza, resulting in the murder and injury of approximately 150 civilians, including women and children.
Israeli army raid in Khan Younis kills at least 38 people from one family, including 14 children.
In Gaza, at least 42,847 people have been killed and 100,544 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks and more than 200 were taken captive.
An Israeli strike on Gaza’s southern Khan Younis city killed 14 children, 13 from the same family. At least 88 Palestinians were killed in total across the Strip on Friday.
Gaza’s civil defence agency says 12 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli drone strikes on people waiting to receive desperately needed humanitarian aid in the besieged north.
At least 38 Palestinians were killed, including 10 children, and another 40 injured on Friday in heavy Israeli air and artillery bombardments targeting residents of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The Health Ministry in the enclave reported that the Israeli army “committed several massacres against Palestinians early Friday in southern and eastern Khan Younis, killing 38 civilians mostly women and children.”
Earlier, a medical source in Khan Younis told Anadolu that 40 injured people and the bodies of 28 people, including 10 children, were brought to Nasser Hospital and the European Gaza Hospital since Friday morning after intense Israeli bombardments of the city’s southern and eastern neighborhoods.
Witnesses reported that the Israeli army targeted a residential home, killing a large number of people, including children.
They further noted that Israeli artillery and warplanes bombed the neighborhoods of Al-Manara, Ma’an, Sheikh Nasser, and Qizan Al-Najjar, displacing hundreds of families and forcing them toward the city’s western areas.
Witnesses also reported that Israeli forces made a limited incursion into the eastern parts of Khan Younis overnight, coupled with heavy airstrikes and shelling, before withdrawing at dawn, leaving extensive damage to homes and other property.
The Israeli army raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Friday, detaining its director for interrogation, according to a Palestinian official.
“The Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital, northern Gaza, and ordered its director Hussam Abu Safiya to go to the hospital’s yard to meet the commander of the (Israeli) invading force for interrogation,” Maher Shamiyeh, the assistant undersecretary for Gaza’s health ministry, told Anadolu.
Shamiyeh said that the Israeli army is holding all patients and medical staff inside a room in the hospital, with no information about their fate.
The Israeli army detained dozens of Palestinians evacuated from the hospital, forcing them to strip down to their boxer shorts and gather in an open area in cold weather.
Shamiyeh urged the international organizations and UN “to immediately intervene to protect the health staff and patients, and to pressure on the Israeli army to withdraw from the hospitals in northern Gaza.”
Earlier, the Health Ministry said that it lost contact with the health staff in Kamal Adwan Hospital following the Israeli army’s incursion.
In a statement earlier, the Israeli army claimed that its forces “are operating in the area of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalia, based on intelligence information regarding the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure in the area.”
The Israeli army announced on Friday that five more soldiers have been killed in the ongoing battles in southern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Ministry reported on Friday that 890 soldiers and security personnel have been killed since the onset of hostilities with Gaza and the broader region on Oct. 7, 2023.
US on Friday deployed a squadron of F-16 fighter jets to the Middle East amid rising expectations of an Israeli strike on Iran, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Friday.
“U.S. Air Force F-16s from the 480th Fighter Squadron based at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany arrive in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
CENTCOM did not specify the intended operational role of the F-16s but emphasized their mission to reinforce US presence in the region.
[Photo: Relatives and family members mourn as bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack brought to Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza on 25 10, 2024. Photojournalist: Mahmoud Isleem/AA]
