World

Israeli strikes kill 30 people overnight in Gaza

A strike late on Monday on the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya killed at least 20 people.

Palestinians inspect vehicles that were burned during an early morning attack by Israeli settlers, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of al-Bireh (Nasser Nasser/AP)
Palestinians inspect vehicles that were burned during an early morning attack by Israeli settlers, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of al-Bireh (Nasser Nasser/AP) (Nasser Nasser/AP)
By Associated Press Reporters

Israeli strikes killed at least 30 people overnight in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.

Strikes early on Tuesday killed 10 people in the Gaza Strip, including four children and two women, and a strike late on Monday on the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya killed at least 20 people, including eight women and six children.

The strike on Monday hit a home where several displaced families were sheltering in Beit Lahiya, near the border with Israel, according to Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of the recently raided and barely functioning Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the casualties.

The Israeli military said it targeted a weapons storage facility from which a militant had operated, and that “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians”.

Israel has been waging a massive offensive in northern Gaza — which was already the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory — for nearly a month.

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Mourners carry the body of Naji al-Baba, 16, who the Palestinian Health Ministry said was killed by Israeli forces in the town of Halhul, West Bank (Mahmoud Illean/AP)
Mourners carry the body of Naji al-Baba, 16, who the Palestinian Health Ministry said was killed by Israeli forces in the town of Halhul, West Bank (Mahmoud Illean/AP) (Mahmoud Illean/AP)

Despite growing pressure from the United States and others in the international community for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, intensified Israeli strikes against the Hezbollah militant group are expanding beyond Lebanon’s border areas.

Israel is also fighting a war against Hamas in northern Gaza.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, at least 3,000 people have been killed and some 13,500 wounded in Lebanon, the health ministry reports.

More than a year of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.

The war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on October 7 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250 others.

People searching for victims at a destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Ghaziyeh, south Lebanon, on Sunday (Mohammed Zaatari/AP)
People searching for victims at a destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Ghaziyeh, south Lebanon, on Sunday (Mohammed Zaatari/AP) (Mohammed Zaatari/AP)

In Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) said the Lebanese Red Cross will send another convoy on Tuesday to Wata al-Khiam in the south of the country to search for and remove the bodies of 15 people killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Paramedics accessed the site of the strike two days ago and removed five bodies, but needed to return with larger vehicles to remove the rubble.

The NNA said the deployment is in co-ordination with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, Unifil, which is the usual procedure.

The Red Cross did not immediately comment on the news, but expressed concern in recent weeks over several instances where Israel has struck in or close to areas where they have deployed paramedics to search for wounded people and casualties.

The Israeli military said it issued warnings to the residents there in late October to evacuate ahead of strikes on Hezbollah militant targets, and told ambulances to avoid the area.