Drone targets Netanyahu’s home as Gaza strikes kill more than 50

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Jerusalem — The Israeli government said a drone targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home on Saturday without causing any casualties, as fighting with Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Gaza-based Hamas showed no respite after the assassination of the Hamas mastermind of the October 7 attack last year.

The Israeli military said dozens of projectiles were launched from Lebanon a day after Hezbollah announced a new phase of fighting. Netanyahu’s office said the drone targeted his home in the Mediterranean coastal city of Caesarea. Neither he nor his wife were there. It was unclear whether the house was hit.

“Iran’s proxies who today attempted to assassinate me and my wife made a grave mistake,” Netanyahu said.

Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for the drone attack, but said it had carried out several rocket attacks on northern and central Israel. The barrage came as Israel is expected to respond to an attack launched earlier this month by Iran, which supports both Hezbollah and Hamas.

Israel in turn carried out at least 10 airstrikes on the southern Beirut suburb known as Dahiyeh, a densely populated area home to Hezbollah offices, Lebanese authorities said. The Israeli army said it struck Hezbollah targets.

In Gaza, Israeli forces fired on hospitals in the battered north of the Palestinian enclave, and their strikes killed more than 50 people, including children, in less than 24 hours, according to hospital officials and a Associated Press reporter.

“The possibility of war in the region remains a major concern,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said during his visit to Türkiye. Defense ministers from the Group of Seven have warned of escalation and “total war”.

Barrages from Lebanon target northern Israel

The war between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified. Hezbollah announced Friday that it plans to send more guided missiles and explosive drones to Israel. The militant group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September, and Israel sent ground troops to Lebanon earlier this month.

The Israeli army said on Saturday that around 180 projectiles were fired from Lebanon. A 50-year-old man was hit by shrapnel and killed in northern Israel, and four other people were injured, Israeli medical services said.

In the northern town of Kiryat Ata, a rocket fell. Itzik Billet, commander of the Haifa region, said nine people were lightly injured.

Lebanon’s national news agency said an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in the eastern village of Baaloul killed five people, including the mayor of a nearby village, Sohmor. An Israeli military official confirmed that the IDF struck targets in the Bekaa Valley.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle on a highway north of Beirut, killing two people.

Israel has issued near-daily warnings for people to leave buildings and villages in parts of Lebanon. The fighting has displaced more than a million people, including around 400,000 children.

Israel also said it killed Hezbollah’s deputy commander in the southern town of Bint Jbeil. The army said Nasser Rashid oversaw attacks on Israel.

Israel drops leaflets showing Sinwar’s body

Israel and Hamas have demonstrated resistance to ending the war in Gaza following the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the chief architect of the raid on Israel more than a year ago, which killed around 1 200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 250 others. There are still hostages in Gaza, at least 30 of whom, according to Israel, are dead.

The Israeli army dropped leaflets in southern Gaza on Saturday showing Sinwar dead with blood streaming down his forehead. “Sinwar has destroyed your lives,” he said. “Whoever lays down their arms and brings the kidnapped people back to us, we will allow them to leave and live in peace.”

Hamas reiterated its position that the hostages will not be released until there is a ceasefire and Israeli troops withdraw. Netanyahu said the Israeli army would fight until the hostages were freed and would remain in Gaza to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish between fighters and civilians but say more than half of the dead are women and children.

New strikes hit Gaza on Saturday, and Palestinian communications company Paltel said it had cut internet networks in the north.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the Israeli strikes hit the upper floors of Indonesia’s Beit Lahiya hospital and forces opened fire on it, causing panic.

The Israeli military said it was operating near the Indonesian hospital and that “no intentional fire was directed against it.”

The army said it was looking into the matter after Al-Awda Hospital in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, said strikes had hit upper floors, injuring several staff members. He later said the army hit an ambulance, injuring four people, including a doctor.

Three houses in Jabaliya were hit overnight, killing at least 30 people, more than half of them women and children, said Fares Abu Hamza, head of the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency services. At least 80 people were injured.

Palestinian residents said the Israeli army was forcing hundreds of displaced people to leave Jabaliya and head towards Gaza City.

“The occupation expelled us at gunpoint,” said Umm Sayed, a mother of three. “Tanks and heavy armed forces surrounded us. She said many young men were apparently taken for questioning, and most were later released.

The Israeli military described it as an evacuation and said it had detained activists for questioning.

A UN school housing displaced people west of Gaza City was hit, killing several people, according to Hamas-led civil defense first responders.

“What is this? There is a clinic and there are children,” said Bashir Haddad, a displaced person. A boy picked up body parts on a piece of cardboard.

In central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed, including two children, when a house was hit in the town of Zawayda, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Another strike killed 11 people from one family in the Maghazi refugee camp, the hospital said.

The war has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million and left them struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.

Associated Press writers Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Municipal workers inspect damage to a building hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Ata, northern Israel, Saturday, October 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli security forces secure a road near where the Israeli government says a drone was launched toward the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/ Ariel Schalit)

FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Friday, September 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith, File)

Officers from the Israeli Home Front Command military unit walk on a road near where, according to the Israeli government, a drone was launched towards the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea, Israel, on Saturday October 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh at sunset in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Protesters take part in a performance calling for the release of hostage Naama Levy, held in the Gaza Strip by the militant group Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, October 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

A protester takes part in a performance calling for the release of hostage Naama Levy, held in the Gaza Strip by the militant group Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, October 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)