Violent Israeli bombardment on northern Gaza while UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon are being bombed again

Beirut (AP) – Palestinians in the north Gaza He described heavy Israeli bombing on Saturday in the hours after air strikes that killed at least 22 people, as Israel warned people there and in southern Lebanon to stay away from attacks against the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

And in Lebanon, United Nations peacekeeping force It said that its headquarters in Naqoura was bombed again, and a peacekeeper was shot late on Friday and is in stable condition. It was not clear who fired the shots. This happened a day after the Israeli army opened fire on the headquarters for a period of time The second day in a row. Israel, which asked peacekeepers to leave their positions, did not immediately respond to questions.

Hunger warnings Emergency situations emerged again in northern Gaza, where residents said they had not received aid since the beginning of the month. The United Nations World Food Program said the north had not brought in any food aid since October 1. An estimated 400,000 people remain.

The Israeli army renewed its attack on northern Gaza about a week ago Escalating its air and ground campaign Against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. In the midst of Israel’s war with Hezbollah, a senior United Nations official, Carl Skau, He told the Associated Press He is concerned about the possibility of Lebanon’s ports and airport being taken out of service. More than one million people have been displaced.

The Israeli army said that Hezbollah fired more than 300 shells on Yom Kippur, the holiest and holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a series of rocket attacks on Israeli military sites, and said its fighters clashed with an Israeli infantry unit that was trying to enter Lebanese territory.

The Israeli army also said that it killed 50 militants in Lebanon. Neither side’s claims cannot be verified.

Today, Saturday, Israeli air strikes hit multiple areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Nine were killed in the village of Maysara in the northeast of the country. Four were killed in a residential building on the outskirts of Burja, south of Beirut. Rayak and Tal Shiha hospitals in the Bekaa Valley were damaged. In Nabatieh, eight people were injured.

The total number of deaths in Lebanon during the past year from the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah reached 2,255 people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. More than 1,400 people have been killed since mid-September. It is not clear how many fighters there are.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on Saturday while touring the scene of the accident: “We will continue to stand with the Lebanese people during these difficult circumstances, as well as with the Palestinian people.” Israeli air strike on Beirut.

Some Gazans are trapped

In northern Gaza, residents told the AP that many were trapped in their homes and shelters with supplies dwindling while they saw bodies uncollected in the streets as bombing hampered emergency responders.

Those who rushed to the scene of recent deadly air strikes in Jabalia refugee camp found a 20-meter (65-foot) deep crater where a house once stood.

Emergency service officials said at least 20 bodies had been recovered while others were likely under the rubble.

Elsewhere in Jabalia, officials said an airstrike on a house killed two brothers and injured a woman and a newborn baby. Fares Abu Hamza, an emergency service official, said that an air strike on a house in the afternoon killed at least four people, including a woman.

The Israeli army said that it killed more than 20 militants in the Jabalia area during the past day.

Army spokesman Avichay Adraee told people in parts of Jabalia and Gaza City to evacuate the south to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone where Israel plans to use significant force “and will continue to do so for a long time.”

Israel repeatedly returned to parts of Gaza while Hamas and other activists regrouped. War Large areas of the Gaza Strip were destroyed It displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people. Often several times.

Once again, some families moved south on foot, in donkey carts, or crowded into vehicles transporting piles of rubble. Others refused to go.

Ahmed Abu Ghneim, a resident of Jabalia, said: “It is like the first days of the war.” “The occupation is doing everything to uproot us. But we won’t leave.”

The 24-year-old said that Israeli warplanes and drones bombed several nearby homes last week. He counted 15 of his relatives and neighbors, including four women and five children as young as 3 years old, who were killed in nearby homes.

Hamza Sharif, who lives with his family in a school turned into a shelter in Jabalia, described “continuous bombing day and night.”

He said that the shelter had not received aid since the beginning of the month and that the families would “run out of supplies very soon.”

Food is running out

The World Food Program said it was unclear how long the limited food supplies it had distributed in northern Gaza earlier would last.

Last month, the independent United Nations investigator on the right to food accused Israel of carrying out an operation “Starvation campaign” against the PalestiniansThis was denied by Israel.

The Israeli assault on Gaza began after a Hamas attack on October 7, when militants stormed Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians. About 250 others were kidnapped.

The Israeli attack led to the death of more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not specify between combatants and civilians. The Gaza Ministry of Health said that hospitals received the bodies of 49 people killed during the past 24 hours.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday to express his “deep concern” over reports that Israeli forces opened fire on UN peacekeeping sites in Lebanon, as well as the killing of two Lebanese soldiers. According to a Pentagon statement.

Austin said it was important to ensure the safety and security of UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces, and “reinforced the need to shift from military operations in Lebanon to the diplomatic track as soon as possible,” according to the statement.

The US Defense Secretary also said that steps must be taken to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and reaffirmed “the United States’ firm, enduring, and resolute commitment to Israel’s security,” according to the statement.

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Sami Magdy reported from Cairo. Jack Jeffrey in Jerusalem and Sam Metz in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.

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Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.