Israeli strikes rock Beirut suburbs, kill 31 Palestinians in Gaza

13 November, 2024 | Filed under: All News,more news,RECENT POSTS | Posted by: Abdillahi

Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 31 people in Gaza in the past 24 hours, including 11 casualties at a makeshift cafeteria within an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone, medics said.

Palestinians mourn by the body of a relative killed in overnight Israeli strikes on the al-Mawasi cafeteria at Nasser hospital, Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Palestine, Nov. 12, 2024. (AFP Photo)

Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes struck Beirut’s southern suburbs Tuesday, following a military warning for residents to evacuate specific homes.

This intensified assault on two fronts comes as Israel faces a U.S. deadline to significantly increase humanitarian aid access into Gaza or risk potential restrictions on U.S. military funding.

A report released Tuesday by eight international aid organizations criticized Israel’s failure to meet these humanitarian benchmarks set by Washington.

In Lebanon, large explosions rocked Beirut’s Dahiyeh district shortly after Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of 11 homes in the area.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

The military said the houses contained Hezbollah installations, but the claim could not be independently confirmed.

Late Monday, a strike hit the village of Ain Yaacoub in northern Lebanon, killing at least 16 people, the Lebanese civil defense said.

Four of those killed were Syrian refugees, and 10 others were wounded.

There was no immediate Israeli military comment on the strike.

Israel has intensified bombardment of Lebanon since late September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and halt more than a year of conflict with the Lebanese group.

Simultaneously, Israel has continued its campaign in Gaza, now more than 13 months old, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, incursion on southern Israel.

An Israeli strike late Monday hit a makeshift cafeteria used by displaced people in Muwasi, at the center of a “humanitarian zone” that Israel’s military declared earlier in the conflict.

At least 11 people were killed, including two children, according to officials at Nasser Hospital, where the casualties were taken.

Video from the scene showed men pulling bloodied wounded from among tables and chairs set up in the sand within an enclosure made of corrugated metal sheets.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, another 11 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a three-wheeled vehicle with a trailer known as a tuk-tuk, according to Nasser Hospital.

Tuk-tuks are widely used as taxis in Gaza.

Another strike early Tuesday hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing three people, including a woman, according to Al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties.

The strike also wounded 11 others, officials said.

Another strike hit a group of people near a clinic run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in the central city of Deir al-Balah, killing at least six people, including two children, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.

Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli military announced a small expansion of the humanitarian zone, where it has told Palestinians evacuating from other parts of Gaza to take refuge.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering in sprawling tent camps in and around Muwasi, a largely desolate area of dunes and agricultural fields with few facilities along the Mediterranean coast.

Israeli forces have also been besieging the northernmost part of Gaza since the beginning of October, battling Hamas members they say have regrouped there.

With virtually no food or aid allowed in for more than a month, the siege has raised fears of famine among the tens of thousands of Palestinians believed to still be sheltering there.

An Oct. 13 letter signed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave Israel 30 days to, among other things, allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods into Gaza each day.

So far, Israel has fallen short.

In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, and 75 a day have entered so far in November, according to Israel’s official figures.

The United Nations puts the number lower, at 39 trucks daily since the beginning of October.

Israel has announced measures in recent days to increase aid, including opening a new crossing into central Gaza.

But the impact remains unclear.

The military said Tuesday it had allowed hundreds of packages of food and water into Jabaliya and Beit Hanoun, two areas under siege in the far north of Gaza.

The Palestinian Civil Defense agency said three trucks carrying flour, canned food, and water reached Beit Hanoun.

It was only the second delivery allowed into the area since early October; a smaller cargo was let in last week, though according to the U.N., not all of it reached shelters in the north.

Palestinian health officials say hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, though true numbers are unknown as rescue workers are unable to reach buildings destroyed in strikes.

Israel has ordered residents in the area to evacuate, but the U.N. estimates about 70,000 people remain.

Many Palestinians fear Israel aims to permanently depopulate the area for easier control.

On Tuesday, witnesses told The Associated Press (AP) that Israeli troops had encircled at least three schools in Beit Hanoun, forcing hundreds of displaced people sheltering inside to leave.

Drones broadcast announcements demanding people move south to Gaza City, said Mahmoud al-Kafarnah, speaking from one of the schools as gunfire could be heard. “The tanks are outside,” he said. “We don’t know where to go.”

Hashim Afanah, sheltering with at least 20 other people in his family home, said the forces were evicting people from houses and shelters.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities with more than half the dead being women and children.

Source:dailysabah.com

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