Israeli military attacks in Lebanon and Gaza kill dozens of people

The Israeli military carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday against what it said were Hezbollah weapons storage facilities after a drone strike earlier in the day killed one person and wounded several others, including students on a bus.

The new attacks came at a time of rising tensions between Israel and Lebanon. An airstrike on Tuesday night killed 13 people in the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. It was the deadliest Israeli attack on record since cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah a year ago.

Meanwhile, Gaza hospitals said Israeli strikes killed at least 21 Palestinians.

Israel claims Hezbollah is regrouping

The Israeli military warned on Wednesday afternoon that it would attack targets in several villages in southern Lebanon, describing them as Hezbollah infrastructure, and called on people to stay away from those locations. More than an hour later, strikes began in the villages of Shehour and Deir Kifa. There was no immediate information on the victims.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah was working to reestablish itself and rebuild its capacity in southern Lebanon, without providing evidence. He said the targeted weapons facilities were embedded among civilians and violated agreements between Israel and Lebanon. Israel agreed to a ceasefire and withdrew from southern Lebanon last year. For its part, Lebanon agreed to quell Hezbollah activity in the area.

Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike on a car in the southern Lebanese village of Tiri killed one person and wounded 11, including students aboard a nearby bus, the Lebanese Health Ministry and state media said. The state-run National News Agency said the school bus was passing near the crashed car. The bus driver and several students were injured, according to the report.

The Israeli military later said it had killed a Hezbollah operative in the drone strike.

In the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, outside the port city of Sidon, life seemed normal on Wednesday, but Lebanese authorities prevented journalists from entering. At the scene of the attack, paramedics searched for human remains around a wall that was stained with blood. Several cars were burned and broken glass and debris littered the ground.

The Israeli military said it attacked a Hamas training complex that was being used to prepare an attack on Israel and its army. He added that the Israeli army will continue to act against Hamas wherever it operates.

Hamas condemned the attack and denied in a statement that the sports field attacked was its training ground.

The latest war between Israel and Hezbollah began on October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel, after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas. The war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $11 billion in destruction, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.

Israeli strikes kill 21 in Gaza

Gaza hospitals said at least 21 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday on both sides of the yellow line established last month. cease-fire. The border divides the enclave in two, leaving the border area under Israeli military control, while the area beyond is intended to serve as a safe zone.

Officials at Al Ahli, Shifa, Nasser and Kuwait hospitals reported receiving the bodies of those killed in Gaza City, Khan Younis and the Muwasi area, the displaced persons camp in southern Gaza. An Israeli strike also killed one person in Shijaiyah, a Gaza City neighborhood outside the safe zone where Israeli forces remain deployed.

The Israeli military said its strikes were in response to militants who had opened fire on Israeli forces in Khan Younis earlier that day. He said no soldiers were killed.

Israeli attacks have decreased since the ceasefire agreement came into effect on October 10, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, although they have not stopped completely. The ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, has reported 280 deaths since the truce began, an average of more than seven a day. Each side has accused the other of violating its terms, which include increasing the flow of aid to Gaza and returning hostages (dead or alive) to Israel.

On Monday, the Approved by the UN Security Council a US plan for Gaza that authorizes an international stabilization force to provide security in the territory and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state. The vote was a crucial step for the fragile ceasefire and efforts to chart Gaza’s future after two years of war.

Hamas, however, criticized the UN’s adoption of the plan, saying: “Assigning the international force tasks and roles within the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality and makes it a party to the pro-occupation conflict,” according to Reuters.

“Any international force, if established, should be stationed solely at the borders to separate forces and monitor the ceasefire, and should be completely under the supervision of the United Nations,” Hamas said, according to Al Jazeera.