Israel launched dozens of powerful airstrikes on farming villages in northeastern Lebanon on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding more, Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported.
“In central Gaza, Palestinians found the bodies of 25 people killed in Israeli airstrikes that began on Thursday (October 31, 2024),” a hospital official said.
The latest violence comes against the backdrop of a renewed diplomatic push by the administration of United States President Joe Biden, days before the presidential election, to reach a temporary ceasefire deal.
Israel’s emergency services said seven people were wounded before dawn on Saturday (November 2, 2024) in an attack in the central city of Tira. “Three projectiles crossed into Israel from Lebanon,” the Israeli military said, and “some of them were intercepted”.
Magen David Adom’s service said that two of the injured were in a moderate condition from the attack, and the others had milder injuries. Photos released by the service show the damage to what appears to be an apartment building.
Israel has stepped up attacks on Hamas fighters remaining in Gaza, ravaging areas in the north and raising fears of a worsening humanitarian situation for remaining civilians.
In Lebanon, Israel has expanded its attacks in recent weeks to larger urban centers, such as the city of Baalbek, home to 80,000 people, after initially targeting small border villages in the south, where Hezbollah operates.
Iran-backed Hezbollah is the main political party and provider of social services in Lebanon.
Hezbollah started firing rockets, drones and missiles from Lebanon to Israel in solidarity with Hamas immediately after the attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in Israel, which led to the war in Gaza. A year-long cross-border battle escalated into a major war on October 1, when Israeli forces launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006.
In Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley – where small villages, olive groves and wineries nestled among the country’s mountains have largely been spared Israeli bombardment so far – Israel carried out a series of heavy airstrikes on Friday (1 November 2024), that kills at least. 52 people, driving more families to flee with whatever they could carry and sending thick plumes of smoke into the horizon.
“Increased Israeli airstrikes in and around the northeastern town of Baalbek after Israel issued an evacuation warning have caused 60,000 people to flee, evacuating nearby villages,” said Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese member of parliament who represents the area.
“In Lebanon, rescuers are searching for survivors after an airstrike killed nine people and destroyed a building housing 20 people in the town of Younine. More Israeli strikes killed 12 people in the town of Amhaz and 31 others in at least a dozen villages in the northeast Lebanon, bringing the death toll to 52,” the Minister of Health said. The bomb injured 72 people, the ministry added.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the deadly attack.
In the Lebanese capital, Israeli planes struck the southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight and early on Friday (1 November 2024) for the first time in four days, spreading panic after a rare lull. The Israeli military, which warned residents to evacuate at least nine locations in Dahiyeh, said it struck a weapons manufacturing site and Hezbollah command center.
There were no reports of casualties from Dahiyeh, where fear of Israeli bombardment led to a mass exodus of residents every night.
Bulldozers rumbled through clouds of dust and smoke on Friday (1 November 2024), clearing debris from a damaged road where Israeli warplanes had reduced dozens of buildings to skeletal remains.
Formerly home to families and businesses, mid-rise apartment blocks are exposed to the wind, walls are blown away and furniture is buried. Hezbollah supporters in several locations raised the group’s bright yellow banners above the rubble.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, more than 2,897 people have been killed and 13,150 injured in Lebanon, the Ministry of Health reported, not including the number of victims as of Friday (November 1, 2024). Health authorities said a quarter of the dead were women and children.
Overall, United Nations agencies estimate that Israel’s ground invasion and bombing of Lebanon has displaced 1.4 million people. Residents of Israel’s northern communities near Lebanon, some 60,000 people, have also been displaced for more than a year.
Hezbollah continues to fire rockets into northern Israel, with a projectile fired from Lebanon on Thursday (October 31, 2024) hitting an agricultural area and killing seven people, including four Thai farm workers.
Israel also continued to bomb Gaza on Friday (November 1, 2024), where airstrikes hit central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp and killed at least 21 Palestinians – including an 18-month-old and a 10-year-old. his sister – according to health officials at the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital.
“The Israeli attack also hit a motorcycle in Zuwaida and a house in Deir al-Balah, killing four more people,” said a hospital official, bringing the death toll in Gaza on Friday (November 1, 2024) to 25.
Israel said it targeted Hamas infrastructure and militants operating near the Nuseirat refugee camp, but did not comment on attacks outside the camp. They said they are aware of reports of civilian casualties and are investigating. In a separate announcement, the Army said an airstrike on a vehicle in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis killed a senior member of Hamas’ political bureau, Izz al-Din Kassab, and his assistant, Ayman Ayesh.
Hamas confirmed the death of Kassab, who was not publicly known. Israel says he is a coordinator between militant groups in Gaza.
As American diplomats left the region after meetings with Israeli officials, there were no signs of a ceasefire breakthrough in Lebanon or Gaza.
On Friday (November 1, 2024), Hamas doubled down on its long-standing demand for a permanent ceasefire and a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, saying Israel had only offered a temporary pause in the fighting and increased aid shipments in the latest negotiations. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
“The proposal does not meet the comprehensive needs of the Palestinian people in terms of security, stability, relief, and reconstruction,” said senior Hamas official Bassem Naem, speaking for the first time to the Hamas-run. Al-Aqsa TV before confirming the position of the group for The Associated Press.
Israel’s blistering war on Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza.
Health officials in Hamas-run Gaza did not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but said more than half of the dead in the enclave were women and children.
Israeli forces have recently turned their attention to Hamas militants, who are said to have regrouped in northern Gaza, renewing attacks that have trapped tens of thousands of people in intense bombardment without enough food or water.
Israeli airstrikes have repeatedly disrupted the emergency polio vaccination campaign, which the World Health Organization announced will resume on Saturday (2 November 2024) – but only in Gaza City. The northern towns, like Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, remain inaccessible as Israel tightens its siege.
The UN and other humanitarian organizations warned Friday (November 1, 2024) that “the situation unfolding in northern Gaza is apocalyptic,” citing Israel’s refusal of humanitarian aid in the area, military attacks on hospitals, airstrikes on shelters and obstacles to teams savior of Palestine. who struggled to help survive after the Israeli attack.
Published – 02 November 2024 10:49 IST
