Written by Nidal Al Mughrabi, Timur Azhari, Laila Bassam
CAIRO/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 68 people in the Gaza Strip and also bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs, medics in the Palestinian enclave say Prospects for a ceasefire ran aground on Friday.
The Israeli military says it has killed Izz al-Din Kassab, a senior Hamas official, in an airstrike in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, the last remaining member of Hamas who was responsible for coordinating with other groups in Gaza. He said he was one of the high-ranking members.
US envoys were working to secure a ceasefire on both fronts ahead of next Tuesday’s US presidential election.
However, Hamas does not support the temporary ceasefire, the country’s al-Aqsa Hamas television reported on Friday. The newspaper said the proposed ceasefire did not meet the conditions that an agreement would include an end to the year-long war in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the devastated Palestinian enclave.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said strengthening security was a priority “despite any pressures or constraints.”
His office said he relayed the message to U.S. special envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGuirk in Israel on Thursday. Meanwhile, Israel continued its military offensive on Friday against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Gazan medics said Israeli airstrikes hit the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, Nuseyrat camp and al-Zawaida town overnight and into Friday morning, killing about 68 people and wounding dozens. It’s south of that.
Doctors at the camp’s al-Awda hospital said 14 people were killed when Israeli forces attacked the gates of a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Nuseyrat. A further 10 people died in Khan Younis’ car, medical officials said.
Hours later, residents said Israeli tanks moved north and east of Nuseyrat, and medical officials said Israeli airstrikes had killed four people, including three children.
The Israeli military said its forces killed so-called armed terrorists in central Gaza and the northern Jabalia region. There was no immediate comment on the reported school strike, but the government has always denied intentionally attacking civilians.
The head of the United Nations humanitarian agency said on Friday that the situation in northern Gaza is “apocalyptic” and that the entire Palestinian population in the area is “sick and sick” as Israel advances its offensive against Hamas militants regrouping in the area. “They are at imminent risk of death from hunger, starvation and violence.”
Israel also launched at least 10 airstrikes on the southern outskirts of Beirut on Friday morning, Reuters reporters said. It was the first shelling in almost a week on the area, once a densely populated district and Hezbollah stronghold.
The airstrikes came after Israel issued an evacuation order for 10 separate neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital.
Speaking on the streets of Beirut, Hassan Saad told Reuters: “This is a brutal war and Israel has no right to do this. There needs to be restrictions because Israel does not abide by any laws. “There is,” he said. human morality. ”
Another man in Beirut, Ali Ramadan, said he believed the Israeli airstrikes were a way to pressure Lebanon in ceasefire negotiations.
The hostilities have undermined hopes of a ceasefire before Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election.
Hamas TV, citing a well-informed source in the group, said the proposed ceasefire did not meet the group’s conditions of a permanent end to hostilities, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the return of displaced people.
It also did not address the need for Palestinian safety, relief and reconstruction, or for the full reopening of border crossings, the officials said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Strategy Minister Ron Dermer discussed a diplomatic solution to the Lebanon conflict, ending the war, and addressing the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip on Friday, the State Department said in a statement.
“Israel’s stubbornness”
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday accused Israel of obstructing progress in negotiations.
“Israel’s statements and the diplomatic signals received by Lebanon confirm Israel’s stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solution and insisting on an approach of killing and destruction,” he said.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Friday that 52 people were killed in Israeli military attacks on more than a dozen towns in the Baalbek region, which is home to Roman ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamie told Reuters that a border crossing had been closed following an Israeli military attack in Syria near northeast Lebanon on Friday. The crossing was closed last month due to Israeli bombing, but had been partially reopened before the latest attack.
A day after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and returning 251 hostages to Gaza, Hezbollah moved to Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians, according to Israeli tallies. They started firing rockets.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced much of Gaza to rubble, as well as at least 2,897 people in Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said in an update on Friday.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Timur Azhari, Laila Bassam and Maya Gebayrey in Beirut, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Ali Safta in Ramallah, Adam Makary in Cairo and Klauda Tanios in Dubai; Maya (Writing by Gebailey, Timur Azhari; Editing by Daphne Psaredakis, Angus McSwan, Mark Heinrich, Cynthia Osterman)
