Israel says 4 soldiers killed by Hezbollah drone attack while Israeli
strike in Gaza leaves 20 dead
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[October 14, 2024]
By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Hezbollah drone attack on an army
base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven
others Sunday, the military said, in the deadliest strike by the
militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon
nearly two weeks ago.
The Lebanon-based Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city
retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22
people. It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade,
launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defense systems
during the assault by “squadrons” of drones.
Israel’s national rescue service said the attack wounded 61. With
Israel’s advanced air-defense systems, it’s rare for so many people to
be injured by drones or missiles. Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire
almost daily in the year since the war in Gaza began, and fighting has
escalated.
Israel launched its ground operation in Lebanon earlier this month with
the goal of weakening Hezbollah and pushing the militant group away from
the border to allow thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their
homes.
Inside Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 20 people including
children at a school Sunday night, according to two local hospitals. The
school in Nuseirat was sheltering some of the many Palestinians
displaced by the war.
Meanwhile, explosions hit early Monday outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
in Deir al-Balah, killing three people and injuring about 50 others, the
hospital said. Tents caught fire, and residents of the Central Gaza
community carried the injured into the hospital.
Hezbollah's deadly strike in Israel came the same day that the United
States announced it would send a new air-defense system to Israel to
help bolster protection against missiles, along with troops needed to
operate it. An Israeli army spokesperson declined to provide a timeline.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — both
Iran-backed militant groups — and is expected to strike Iran in
retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month. Iran has said it
will respond to any Israeli attack.
Netanyahu calls UN peacekeepers ‘human shield’ for Hezbollah
The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL said Israeli
tanks forcibly entered the gates of one position early Sunday and
destroyed the main gate. They later fired smoke rounds near
peacekeepers, causing skin irritation. UNIFIL called the incident a
“further flagrant violation of international law.”
International criticism is growing after Israeli forces have repeatedly
fired on U.N. peacekeepers since the start of the ground operation in
Lebanon. Five peacekeepers have been wounded in attacks that struck
their positions, with most blamed on Israeli forces.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres,
called Sunday's incident “deeply worrying” and said attacks against
peacekeepers may constitute a war crime.
Israel’s military says Hezbollah operates in the peacekeepers' vicinity,
without providing evidence.
Military officials said a tank trying to evacuate wounded soldiers
backed into a U.N. post Sunday while under fire. A smoke screen was used
to provide cover, they said.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani asserted that Israel has tried to
maintain constant contact with UNIFIL, and any instance of U.N. forces
being harmed will be investigated at “the highest level.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for UNIFIL to heed
Israel’s warnings to evacuate, accusing them of “providing a human
shield” to Hezbollah.
“We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing
everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and
obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger
zone,” he said in a video addressed to the U.N. secretary-general, who
has been banned from entering Israel.
Israel has long accused the United Nations of being biased against it,
and relations have plunged further since the start of the war in Gaza.
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Destroyed buildings at a commercial street that was hit Saturday
night by Israeli airstrikes, are seen in Nabatiyeh town, south
Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Israeli strike in Lebanon destroys Ottoman-era market
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas’
surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, drawing retaliatory
airstrikes. The conflict escalated in September with Israeli strikes
that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his
senior commanders.
Israel launched a ground operation earlier this month. More than
1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since September, according
to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were
Hezbollah fighters. At least 58 people have been killed in rocket
attacks on Israel, nearly half of them soldiers.
Israeli airstrikes overnight destroyed an Ottoman-era market in
Lebanon’s southern city of Nabatiyeh, killing at least one person
and wounding four.
“Our livelihoods have all been leveled,” said Ahmad Fakih, whose
shop was destroyed. Rescuers searched pancaked buildings as Israeli
drones buzzed overhead.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets, without
elaborating, and said it continued to target the militants on
Sunday.
Separately, the Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching
for casualties in a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in
southern Lebanon when a second strike left four paramedics with
concussions and damaged two ambulances.
The Red Cross said the operation had been coordinated with U.N.
peacekeepers, who informed the Israeli side.
Bodies rot in the streets in northern Gaza
Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza
almost daily. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians
and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they
operate in densely populated areas.
In northern Gaza, Israeli air and ground forces have been attacking
Jabaliya, where the military says militants have regrouped. Over the
past year, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the built-up
refugee camp, which dates to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's
creation, and other areas.
Israel has ordered the full evacuation of northern Gaza, including
Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 people remain in the north after a
mass evacuation ordered in the war's opening weeks.
Palestinians fear Israel intends to permanently depopulate the north
to establish military bases or Jewish settlements there.
The United Nations says no food has entered northern Gaza since Oct.
1.
The military confirmed that hospitals were included in evacuation
orders but said it had not set a timetable and was working with
local authorities to facilitate patient transfers.
Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the Gaza Health Ministry’s
emergency service, said the bodies of a “large number of martyrs”
remain uncollected from the streets and under rubble.
“We are unable to reach them,” he said, asserting that dogs are
eating some remains.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked a year ago, killing
some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250.
Around 100 hostages are still held in Gaza, a third believed to be
dead.
Israel's bombardment and its ground invasion of Gaza have killed
over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, and
left much of the territory in ruins. The ministry doesn't
distinguish between militants or civilians, but says women and
children make up over half the deaths.
Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing
evidence.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb
and Abby Sewell in Beirut, Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wafaa
Shurafa in Deir al Balah and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City,
Utah, contributed to this report.
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