DEIR ALBALA, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel attacks five-story building housing displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza Strip At least 60 people were killed early Tuesday, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
In another development, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah Sheikh Naim Qassem succeed Hassan Nasrallah, long-time leaderHe was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month. Hezbollah vowed to continue Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.”
Israel also faced a backlash for passing a bill that could significantly limit the ability of U.N. agencies to serve Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian territories. This agency, known as UNRWA, Gaza’s largest aid provider. Israel has long accused it of having ties to extremists, an allegation it denies.
A spokesperson for the United Nations children’s agency said the decision “means a new way of killing children has been discovered.”
Hezbollah’s new leader vows to continue fighting Israel
Hezbollah said in a statement that its decision-making Shura Council had selected Qasem, who has been Nasrallah’s deputy leader for more than 30 years, as its new secretary-general.
Mr. Qasem, 71, was a founding member and acting leader of the extremist group established after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982. He gave several televised speeches, vowing that Hezbollah would continue fighting despite a series of setbacks.
After Hamas’s surprise attack from Gaza sparked a war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in retaliation. Iran, which supports both groups, also engaged in direct gunfire with Israelin April, and again this month.
Tensions with Hezbollah boiled over in September, when Israel unleashed heavy airstrikes that killed Nasrallah and most of his senior commanders. Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon in early October.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday, killing at least one person in the northern city of Ma’arot Tarshiha, authorities said.
Strikes occur in northern Gaza as Israel carries out large-scale operations there
Despite attention shifting to Lebanon and Iran in recent weeks, Israel continues to carry out large-scale operations in northern Gaza and carry out airstrikes across the territory.
Dr. Marwan Alhams, head of the Gaza Health Ministry field hospital, announced at a press conference the death toll from Tuesday’s strike in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. A further 17 people were said to be missing.
The province’s emergency services said at least 12 women and 20 children were among the dead, including an infant. According to an initial casualty list provided by emergency services, the dead included a mother and her five children, some of whom were adults, and another mother and her six children.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has been conducting an operation for more than three weeks targeting some reunited Hamas militants in northern Gaza.
Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, director of nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, said the hospital was overwhelmed by the wave of injuries from the strike. Israeli forces raided medical facilities over the weekend and detained dozens of medical workers.
The military said it had captured a number of Hamas militants in the Kamal Adwan raid, the latest in a series of attacks on hospitals since the start of the war.
Israeli forces have repeatedly raided shelters for displaced people in recent months, claiming they targeted Palestinian militants with targeted attacks and tried to avoid harming civilians. Strikes often resulted in the deaths of women and children.
Israel’s latest major operation in northern Gaza focuses on the Jabaliya refugee camp, where hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands have been forced from their homes in the Gaza Strip. A new wave of mass migration It has been more than a year since war began in the small coastal territory.
The military said on Tuesday that four more soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing the death toll since the start of the operation to 16, including a colonel. The military claims without evidence that it has killed dozens of militants, but Hamas has not made its losses public.
Israeli law targeting UN agencies could further restrict aid
Israel has also sharply restricted aid to the north this month. Warning from the United States Failure to facilitate the expansion of humanitarian assistance could lead to cuts in military aid.
Palestinians fear Israel is making laws Plan proposed by a group of former generalsordered civilians in the north to evacuate, cut off aid, and suggested that those who remained there should be considered extremists.
The military denies carrying out such a plan, but the government has not made a clear statement about it.
On Monday, Israel’s parliament passed two laws banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and severing ties with the agency. Israel controls access to both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, but it was unclear how the agency would continue to operate there.
Israel claims UNRWA has been infiltrated by Hamas and that the extremist group uses UN facilities to siphon aid and protect its operations, but the UN agency denies the claims. There is.
Aid groups have warned that there is no immediate replacement for UNRWA, which provides education, health care and emergency aid to millions of Palestinian refugees. 1948 war over the creation of the state of Israel and their descendants. Refugee families make up the majority of Gaza’s population.
James Elder, a spokesman for the U.N. children’s agency known as UNICEF, said “the humanitarian system in Gaza is likely to collapse” if UNRWA’s operations are suspended. He said UNICEF would be “virtually unable to distribute life-saving supplies.”
It said this would hamper the delivery of vaccines, winter clothing, hygiene and health kits, water and ready-to-use therapeutic food. to fight malnutrition.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others. There are still about 100 hostages in Gaza, and one-third of them are thought to be dead.
More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli retaliatory attacks, according to local health authorities. Approximately 90% of the country’s 2.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes multiple times.
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Mr. Magdy reported from Cairo and Mr. Mourou from Beirut. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Jamie Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
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