War between Israel and Hamas: the Israeli army intensifies its airstrikes against Gaza

The Israeli army on Saturday renewed its orders for Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and shelters as troops continue a week-long offensive against militants.

Most of the fighting over the past week has been concentrated in and around Jabaliya, which has been pounded by Israeli warplanes and artillery. Residents said they were stuck in their homes and shelters.

In Lebanon, authorities announced Friday that 60 people were killed and 168 injured in the past 24 hours, bringing the total toll in the past year’s conflict between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah to 2,229 dead and 10,380 injured. .

Israel has intensified its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion on the border, after a year of firefights. Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not specify how many were fighters but say women and children account for more than half of the dead. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often repeatedly.

It’s been a year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed military bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 250 others. They still hold around 100 prisoners inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Here is the latest:

Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes killed at least 22

CAIRO – Israeli airstrikes razed a residential area and killed at least 22 people, including women and children, in an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said Saturday.

In an area where the Israeli army launched a major ground operation last week, one of the strikes on Friday evening destroyed an entire building, killing at least 20 people and severely damaging several nearby buildings in the center of the Jabaliya camp, according to the ambulance and the Ministry of Health. Emergency service.

Another strike killed a mother and father and injured their baby in another part of Jabaliya, medical officials said.

First responders who rushed to the scene before the strikes ended discovered a 20-meter-deep hole in a home in the area.

At least 20 bodies had been found in the area as of Saturday morning, with many more believed to be missing under the rubble, emergency officials said, adding that at least six women and seven children had been killed.

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday that Gaza hospitals had received the bodies of 49 people killed in the past 24 hours. Hospitals also received 219 injured people. The deaths bring the total death toll to 42,175 since the war began on October 7 last year, with 98,339 injured, according to the ministry.

Israeli military officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Friday night’s strikes are part of Israel’s latest broader offensive in northern Gaza.

US military hits Islamic State camps in Syria with airstrikes

The US military said it carried out a series of airstrikes against several camps in Syria belonging to the Islamic State group.

US Central Command said Friday’s strikes would “disrupt ISIS’s ability to plan, organize and carry out attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, as well as civilians throughout the region and beyond.” beyond.”

It said battle damage assessments were ongoing and did not include civilian casualties.

There are some 900 U.S. troops in Syria, as well as an undisclosed number of contractors, most of whom are trying to prevent any return of the extremist group ISIS, which swept across Iraq and Syria in 2014, taking over control of vast areas of territory.

Iranian Parliament Speaker visits Beirut

BEIRUT – The speaker of Iran’s parliament visited the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Saturday that killed and injured dozens of people, vowing that Tehran would continue to support the Lebanese and Palestinians in the fight against Israel.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf visited the bombed area after speaking with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who said Lebanon’s priority now was to work towards a ceasefire.

His office said the Lebanese government still respects the 2006 UN Security Council resolution, approved at the end of a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah, and is ready to strengthen the presence of the Lebanese army along the country’s border with Israel.

“We will stand by the Lebanese people in these difficult circumstances and also by the Palestinian people,” Qalibaf said during his tour, during which he was escorted by several Hezbollah officials.

Qalibaf added that Iran would help the Lebanese people and “we hope they will be victorious.”

This is the second recent visit by an Iranian official to Beirut following the foreign minister’s more frequent visit this month. Iran is one of the main supporters of Hezbollah which has suffered major setbacks in recent weeks, including the assassination of its leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah began attacking Israeli army posts in October last year, in solidarity with the Hamas militant group in Gaza. Since September 23, Israel has intensified its airstrikes and forced the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese. Last week, Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon, leading to clashes along the border with Hezbollah fighters.

No food has entered northern Gaza since October 1, UN says

CAIRO – The United Nations food agency said Saturday that no food aid had entered northern Gaza since October 1.

The World Food Program said the main border crossing into the war-ravaged area had been closed for about two weeks, warning that Israel’s ongoing ground operations are having a disastrous impact on the food security of thousands of Palestinian families.

“The north is practically cut off and we are not able to operate there,” said Antoine Renard, WFP director for the Palestinian territories.

Concerns about a food crisis have increased in Gaza about a month after the UN’s independent right to food investigator accused Israel of waging a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians.

Israel denied the allegations and insisted it had allowed food and other aid into Gaza in significant quantities.

“Israel has not prevented the entry or coordination of humanitarian aid entering from its territory into the northern Gaza Strip. As proof, humanitarian aid coordinated by COGAT and international organizations will also continue to enter in the northern Gaza Strip in the coming days,” COGAT said. , the Israeli military body overseeing aid distribution, said in a statement Wednesday.

The WFP said its food distribution points, as well as kitchens and bakeries in northern Gaza, were forced to close due to airstrikes, military ground operations and evacuation orders. He said the only operating bakery in northern Gaza, supported by the WFP, caught fire after being hit by an explosive ordnance.

The WFP said its last food reserves in the north – including canned goods, wheat flour, high-energy biscuits and nutritional supplements – have been distributed to shelters, health facilities and kitchens in the city of Gaza and three shelters in the northern areas. . It is unclear how long these limited food supplies will last, but the consequences for fleeing families will be dire if the escalation continues.

EU concerned about Israeli legislation that would ban UNRWA

JERUSALEM — The European Union said Saturday it was deeply concerned by an Israeli bill that would ban the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in Israel and likely reduce aid distribution in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Earlier this week, an Israeli parliamentary committee approved two bills this week that would ban UNRWA from operating on Israeli territory and end all contact between the government and the UN agency. The bill must be finally approved by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

“If passed, (the bill) would have disastrous consequences, preventing the UN agency from continuing to provide its services and protection to Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza “, the EU said in an online statement.

Israel alleged that some of the thousands of UNRWA personnel participated in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war between Israel and Hamas.

The UN has since fired more than a dozen staff members after internal investigations revealed they may have participated in the attack that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel.

The UN agency was the main provider of food, water and shelter to Palestinian civilians during the 12-month conflict in Gaza.

Concern over the Israeli bill was echoed on Wednesday by UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, who said all humanitarian operations in Gaza and the West Bank could “disintegrate” if the bill was implemented. .

Israeli army renews orders to evacuate northern Gaza

CAIRO – The Israeli army on Saturday renewed its order for Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and shelters, amid a week of intense fighting with militants.

Avichay Adraee, a spokesperson for the Israeli army, told people that the area included parts of the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City and other parts in and around Jabaliya, the urban refugee camp.

In a post on X, Adraee asked people living there to head south to Muwasi, a populated area in southern Gaza designated by the army as a humanitarian zone.

Most of the past week, fighting has been concentrated in and around Jabaliya, with Israeli warplanes and artillery pounding the area. People said they were stuck in their homes and shelters. The army also ordered the three main hospitals in northern Gaza to evacuate patients and medical staff.

When UNRWA was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1949, its goal was to provide health care, education and social services to approximately 700,000 Palestinian refugees from the 1948 conflict with Israel.