A man stares at the still smoking destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighbourhood in Baalbeck in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley on November 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Israeli strikes killed dozens of people on Sunday (November 10, 2024) in Lebanon and the northern Gaza Strip, where the military has been waging a major offensive for more than a month that aid groups say has further worsened the humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 20 people in the village of Aalmat, north of Beirut and far from the areas in southern and eastern Lebanon where the militant Hezbollah group has a major presence. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said a further six people were wounded. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

In northern Gaza, an Israeli strike on a home sheltering displaced people in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya killed at least 17 people, according to the director of a nearby hospital that received the bodies.

Dr. Fadel Naim, director of the Al-Ahly Hospital in Gaza City, said the dead include nine women, and that the toll was likely to rise as rescue efforts continue.

The Israeli military said it targeted a site where militants were operating in Jabaliya, without providing evidence. It said the details of the strike are under review.

A separate strike on Sunday (November 10, 2024) hit a house in Gaza City, killing Wael al-Khour, a Minister in the Hamas-run government, as well as his wife and three children, according to the Civil Defense, a first responders organization that operates under the government.

Israeli forces have encircled and largely isolated Jabaliya and the nearby towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun for the past month, allowing in only a trickle of humanitarian aid. Hundreds of people have been killed since the offensive began on October 6, and tens of thousands of people have fled to nearby Gaza City.

On Friday (November 8, 2024), experts from a panel that monitors food security said famine is imminent in the north or may already be happening. The growing desperation comes as the deadline approaches for an ultimatum the Biden administration gave Israel to raise the level of humanitarian assistance allowed into Gaza or risk possible restrictions on U.S. military funding.

The northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, was the first target of Israel’s ground invasion and has suffered the heaviest destruction of the 13-month-old war, which was triggered by Hamas’ attack into southern Israel. As in other areas of Gaza, Israel has sent forces back in after repeated operations, saying Hamas has regrouped.

The military says it only targets militants, whom it accuses of hiding among civilians in homes and shelters. Israeli strikes often kill women and children.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel after war broke out in Gaza in solidarity with the Palestinians and its fellow Iran-backed militant group Hamas.

Israel retaliated, and a series of escalations over several months led to all-out war in September, when Israel carried out a wave of heavy strikes and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, as well as most of his top commanders.

Since then, Israel has struck areas deeper and deeper inside Lebanon, while Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire from northern to central Israel. The fighting has killed over 3,000 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry, and more than 70 people in Israel.

In videos purporting to show the aftermath of Sunday’s strike in Aalmat, some 40km north of Beirut, people were seen pulling the body of a little girl out of the rubble. The house had been flattened, and several cars nearby were also damaged.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants blew holes in the border fence and stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023. They killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities who do not distinguish between civilians and militants in their count but say over half the fatalities were women and children.

Israeli bombardment and ground invasions have left vast areas of Gaza in ruins and displaced around 90% of the population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in crowded tent camps with few if any public services and no idea of when they might return to their homes or rebuild.

Cease-fire talks mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have repeatedly stalled since the start of the year, as have parallel efforts by the U.S. and others to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Qatar, which has served as a key mediator with Hamas, said over the weekend that it had suspended its efforts and would only resume them when “the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war and the ongoing suffering of civilians.”

Smoke rises after a recent Israeli airstrike on Southern Lebanon. File
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Israeli military said on Monday (November 4, 2024) it had killed a top Hezbollah commander it accused of overseeing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

“Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, was “eliminated” in an air strike,” the military said, without specifying when he was killed.

Rida “was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF (military) troops and oversaw the terrorist activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area”, the military said in a statement.

Israel has continued to pound Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the war between the two sides broke out in late September.

In recent weeks, Israel has killed several of the movement’s militant commanders and top leaders, including former chief Hassan Nasrallah.

The war began after nearly a year of cross-border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, with the Lebanese group firing rockets into northern Israel almost daily in support of its ally in Gaza, Hamas.

Israel is fighting its deadliest war in Gaza against Hamas after the Palestinian militant group launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.

Flames and smoke rise form an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
| Photo Credit: BILAL HUSSEIN

A child and three adults were killed and 24 others were wounded on Monday (October 21, 2024) in an Israeli strike near the Lebanese capital Beirut’s main government hospital, the national health ministry said in a statement.

Israel’s campaign in Lebanon has displaced more than 1.2 million people multiple times, according to Lebanese authorities. Israel says it aims to drive Hezbollah fighters from the border region so tens of thousands of Israelis can return to homes they were forced to flee over the past year due to Hezbollah cross-border fire in solidarity with Palestinians during the war in Gaza.

More strikes are coming

Israel said late Monday (October 21, 2024) it planned to carry out more strikes in Lebanon against a Hezbollah-run financial institution that it targeted the night before and which it says uses customers’ deposits to finance attacks against Israel.

At least 15 branches of Al-Qard Al-Hasan were hit late Sunday (October 20, 2024) in the southern neighbourhoods of Beirut, across southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. One strike flattened a nine-story building in Beirut with a branch inside it.

The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes, and there were no reports of casualties.

Associated Press journalists witnessed strikes late Monday (October 21, 2024) in the coastal region of Ouzai, near Beirut’s airport, and Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an airstrike near Beirut’s largest public hospital killed four, including a child, and wounded 24. It was the first strike on the Lebanese capital in 10 days.

An Israeli airforce Samson C-130J Super Hercules cargo plane flies over the Israeli coastal city of Netanya towards northern Israel, on August 25, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Sunday’s (August 25, 2024) strikes in Lebanon were “not the final word” in his country’s military campaign against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

“We are striking Hezbollah with surprising, crushing blows… This is another step towards changing the situation in the north and safely returning our residents to their homes. And, I repeat, this is not the final word,” Mr. Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting.

He said the military destroyed thousands of “short-range rockets, all of which were intended to harm our civilians and forces in the Galilee”.

“Additionally, the IDF (Israeli military) intercepted all the drones that Hezbollah launched at a strategic target in central Israel,” he said, without identifying what the target was.

Israeli media however reported the target Hezbollah aimed to strike was the headquarters of the Israeli Mossad spy agency near Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said the main target of his group was Glilot, “the main Israeli military intelligence base” near Tel Aviv.

Israel’s military said there were “no hits” on that base. Israeli media reported that Glilot hosts the headquarters of the country’s Mossad spy agency.

Israeli authorities declared a 48-hour state of emergency but later relaxed most of the restrictions.

There was some disruption to flights in Israel and Lebanon.