Israeli strikes in northern Gaza kill at least 88 people, officials say

DEIR AL-BALA, Gaza Strip (AP) – Two Israeli airstrikes in the north of the Gaza Strip At least 88 people were killed Tuesday, including dozens of women and children, health officials said, and a hospital director said life-threatening injuries remained untreated after a raid by Israeli forces over the weekend led to the detention of dozens of medics.

In recent weeks, Israel has stepped up airstrikes and carried out a broader ground operation in northern Gaza, saying it aims to root out Hamas militants who have regrouped after more than a year of war. Intense fighting is raising alarms about deteriorating humanitarian conditions for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still trapped in northern Gaza.

Concerns about insufficient aid flowing into the Gaza Strip intensified on Monday when Israeli lawmakers pass two laws break ties with main UN agency distributing foodwater and medicines and ban their use on Israeli soil. Israel controls access to both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and it was unclear how the agency, known as UNRWA, would continue to operate in both places.

“The humanitarian operation in Gaza, if exposed, would be a disaster in a series of disasters and simply not worth thinking about,” said UNRWA spokesman John Fowler. He said other U.N. agencies and international organizations distributing aid in Gaza are relying on their logistics and thousands of workers.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem achieve success longtime leader Hassan Nasrallahwho was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month. Hezbollah, which has fired rockets at Israel since the start of the Gaza war, vowed to continue Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.”

Some time later, eight Austrian soldiers serving with the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon were slightly injured in a midday rocket attack.

The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, said the rocket that hit its headquarters in Lebanon was “likely” fired by Hezbollah and that it hit a car workshop.

The strike in the northern Gaza Strip comes as Israel is conducting a major operation there.

The Gaza Ministry of Health’s emergency services said at least 70 people were killed and 23 missing in the first strike on Tuesday in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya. According to the ministry, more than half of the victims were women and children. A mother and her five children, some of them adults, and a second mother with six children were among those killed in the attack on the five-story building, emergency services said.

The second strike on Beit Lahiya on Tuesday evening killed at least 18 people, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally.

The nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital was overwhelmed by a wave of wounded women and children, many of whom required urgent surgery, according to its director, Dr. Hossam Abu Safiyah. Over the weekend, Israeli troops raided a hospital, detaining dozens of medics they said were Hamas militants.

“The situation is catastrophic in every sense of the word,” Safiya said, adding that the only remaining doctor at the hospital was a pediatrician. “The health system has collapsed and needs urgent international intervention.”

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller referred to the “horrifying incident” in Beit Lahia in comments to reporters. He said Israel’s year-long campaign against Hamas ensured it could not repeat the type of attack that started the war in the Gaza Strip, but that “getting here came at a great cost to the civilian population.”

The Israeli military said it was investigating the first strike on Beit Lahiya; he did not immediately comment on the second.

Recent Israeli operations in northern Gaza, centered in and around the Jabaliya refugee camp, have resulted in hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands have been driven from their homes.

In recent months, the Israeli military has repeatedly struck shelters for displaced people. They say they carry out precision strikes against Palestinian militants and try not to harm civilians, but the strikes often kill women and children.

Israel said Tuesday that four more of its soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing the death toll since the operation began to 16, including a colonel.

At the height of the fighting, Hamas has signaled that it is willing to resume ceasefire talks, although its key demands – a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli military forces – appear to have remained unchanged and have been rejected by Israel in the past. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Tuesday that the group had accepted the mediators’ request to discuss “new proposals.”

New Hezbollah leader vows to continue fight against Israel

Hezbollah said in a statement that its decision-making Shura Council had selected Qassem, who served as Nasrallah’s deputy leader for more than three decades, as the new secretary general.

The acting leader was Kassem, 71, one of the founders of the militant group created after Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. He made several televised speeches, promising that Hezbollah would continue to fight despite a string of setbacks.

Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel, prompting a retaliatory strike, following a Hamas surprise attack from Gaza on October 7, 2023. Iran, which supports both groups, also did so. directly exchanged fire with Israelin April and then again this month.

Tensions with Hezbollah peaked in September when Israel launched a wave of heavy airstrikes and killed Nasrallah and most of his senior commanders. In early October, Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon.

Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday, killing one person in the northern town of Ma’alot Tarshiha, authorities said. Israeli strikes on the coastal city of Sidon have killed at least five people, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

Israeli laws targeting UN agency could further limit aid

UNRWA and other international groups continued to express outrage Tuesday over the Israeli parliament’s decision to sever ties with the agency.

Israel says UNRWA has been infiltrated by Hamas and that the militant group is siphoning aid and using UN facilities to cover its activities. The UN agency denies the accusations.

Israeli government spokesman David Menser promised that aid would continue to flow into the Gaza Strip as Israel plans to coordinate its efforts with aid organizations or other bodies within the UN. terrorist organization,” he said.

Numerous U.N. agencies rallied behind UNRWA on Tuesday, calling it the “backbone” of the world body’s relief efforts in the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian areas. UNRWA provides education, health care and emergency assistance to millions of Palestinian refugees from 1948 war over the creation of Israel and their descendants. Refugee families make up the majority of Gaza’s population.

This month, Israel sharply limited aid to northern Gaza, prompting warning from the USA that failure to provide increased humanitarian assistance could lead to a reduction in military assistance.

Hamas killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages in its attack on Israel last year. There are still about 100 hostages in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

The Israeli retaliatory offensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. About 90% of the population of 2.3 million have been forced to flee their homes, often multiple times.

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Magdi reported from Cairo and Mrou from Beirut. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, Matthew Lee in Washington and Jamie Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

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