Rescuers pull 30 bodies from a building in central Lebanon hit in an Israeli strike

[November 06, 2024]  By FADI TAWIL

BARJA, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanese rescuers pulled 30 bodies out of the rubble after a late night Israeli strike on an apartment building in the town of Barja, Lebanon’s Civil Defense service said Wednesday as the Mideast wars press on with no signs of abating.

It remained unclear if there were any survivors or bodies still trapped under the rubble following the Tuesday night airstrike, which came without warning. There was no statement from the Israeli military and the strike's intended target also was unknown.

Barja, a town just north of the port city of Sidon in central Lebanon, has not been regularly targeted so far in the conflict.

“Something pulled me hard, and then the explosion happened,” said Moussa Zahran, who was at home with his wife and son when the building was hit. He said he couldn't see but started digging through the rubble until he found his wife and son — alive but injured — and pulled them out. Both are still in the hospital, he said.

Another building resident, Muhyiddin Al- Qalaaji, said he was at work when the strike happened and heard the news from his wife who called him frantically.

"There are many dead and injured,” he said as he carried out what he could salvage of the family's belongings on Wednesday morning.

Civil defense official Mostafa Danaj said some of the neighbors have reported there are still people missing.

Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group have been clashing for more than a year, since Hezbollah started firing rockets across the border soon after the deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza in October last year.

The war on the Lebanese front has substantially escalated since mid-September, with Israel launching a massive aerial bombardment and ground invasion.

On Wednesday, sirens blared across northern and central Israel, including in the populous metropolitan area of Tel Aviv, as Hezbollah launched 10 rockets towards Israel. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said there were no reports of injuries.

A large portion of a rocket slammed into a parked car in the central Israeli city of Raanana. Rockets also struck an open area near Israel’s main airport, Israeli media reported, though the airport said flights were operating as normally.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said there were no injuries. Israeli police said they arrested 40 people during protests on Tuesday night when the demonstrators blocked Israel’s main highway in Tel Aviv.

Rescue workers use excavators to remove the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit Tuesday night in an Israeli airstrike, as they search for victims in Barja, Lebanon, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a surprise announcement that sparked protests across the country. Gallant’s replacement is Foreign Minister Israel Katz, a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister.

While Netanyahu has called for continued military pressure on Hamas, Gallant said military force created the necessary conditions for at least a temporary diplomatic deal that could bring home hostages held by the militant group.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others, taking them back to Gaza as hostages.

Israel’s military response 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.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, at least 3,000 people have been killed and some 13,500 have been wounded in Lebanon, about a quarter of them women and children, the Health Ministry reported.

Hezbollah continues to send dozens of rockets and drones towards Israel. The projectiles have killed 72 people in Israel so far, including 30 soldiers, according to Netanyahu’s office.

A report by Lebanon’s crisis response unit said that 361,300 Syrians and over 177,800 Lebanese have crossed into Syria between Sept. 23 and Nov. 1, to escape the fighting.

Another night of protests was planned across Israel on Wednesday evening, over Gallant's firing.

Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly been at odds over the war in Gaza but the prime minister had avoided letting go of his rival before the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday.

By midday Wednesday in the Middle East, Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States in a remarkable political comeback.

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Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

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