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Israeli raids kill dozens in Gaza and Lebanon, doctors say
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Israeli raids kill dozens in Gaza and Lebanon, doctors say

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 46 people in the Gaza Strip in the past day, including 11 in a makeshift canteen in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone, medics said. In Lebanon, warplanes struck the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday and killed 33 people elsewhere in the country.

The latest bombing came as the United States said it would not cut military support for Israel after a deadline to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza expired. The State Department noted some progress, even as international aid groups said Israel had failed to meet US demands.

In Lebanon, large explosions rocked the southern suburbs of Beirut – an area known as Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah has a significant presence – shortly after the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for 11 homes there.

There was no immediate word on the victims. The Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah infrastructure, including command centers and weapons production sites, without providing evidence.

Another Israeli strike on an apartment building east of Beirut killed at least six people. Wael Murtada said the destroyed house belonged to his uncle and those inside fled Dahiyeh last month. He said three children were among the dead and others were missing.

An Israeli airstrike on a residential building in central Lebanon killed 15 people, including eight women and four children, and wounded at least 12 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. The strike came without warning, and state media said the building was housing displaced families.

Israel has been carrying out heavy bombing raids on Lebanon since late September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end more than a year of cross-border fire by the Lebanese militant group.

A rocket exploded in a storage building in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya on Tuesday, killing two people, first responders said. Two other people were injured by shrapnel in a separate impact outside the city.

A Hezbollah drone crashed into a kindergarten near the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Tuesday morning, but the children were in a bomb shelter and were not injured. The impact scattered debris across the playground.

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 46 At the same time, Israel continued its 13-month campaign in Gaza, triggered by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in southern Israel.

An Israeli strike late Monday hit a makeshift canteen used by displaced people in Muwasi, the center of a “humanitarian zone” the Israeli military declared earlier in the war.

At least 11 people were killed, including two children, according to officials at Nasser Hospital, where the victims were taken. Video from the scene showed men dragging bloodied wounded from among tables and chairs set in the sand in a corrugated iron enclosure.

A strike on a house in the northern city of Beit Hanoun killed 15 people on Tuesday, including relatives of Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat, who was reporting from the north.

Mourners attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Orr Katz, who was killed in a battle in the Gaza Strip, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024.

Ohad Zwigenberg / AP

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Mourners attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Orr Katz, who was killed in a battle in the Gaza Strip, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024.

Mohamed Shabat and his wife Dima, both volunteer doctors at Kamal Adwan Hospital, were killed along with their daughter Eliaa, according to hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya.

Strikes in central and southern Gaza killed another 20 people, according to Palestinian medical officials.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attacks.

Under US pressure, Israel allows more aid into Gaza Hours earlier, the Israeli military announced a small expansion of the humanitarian zone where it told Palestinians fleeing from other parts of Gaza to take refuge. Hundreds of thousands are sheltering in sprawling tent camps in and around Muwasi, a desolate area with few public services.

Israeli forces have also besieged the northernmost part of Gaza since early October, battling Hamas fighters it says have regrouped there.

With virtually no food or aid for more than a month, the siege has sparked fears of starvation among the tens of thousands of Palestinians believed to still be sheltering there.

The United States gave Israel a 30-day deadline — which expired this week — to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, asking it to, among other things, allow at least 350 trucks to enter each day.

So far, Israel has fallen short. In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, and so far 75 a day in November, according to official Israeli figures. The United Nations lowers the number to 39 trucks a day since early October.

Israel has announced a series of measures in recent days to increase aid, including the opening of a new crossing point in central Gaza and some small deliveries of food and water to the north. But so far the impact is unclear.

More forced evacuations in Gaza’s isolated north. The army said on Tuesday that four soldiers had been killed in Jabaliya, bringing to 24 the number of soldiers killed in the attack there since it began.

Palestinian health officials say hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, although the actual numbers are unknown because rescue workers cannot reach buildings destroyed in the strikes. Israel ordered residents of the area to evacuate. But the UN estimated that about 70,000 people remained.

Many Palestinians there fear that Israel aims to permanently depopulate the area to more easily retain control over it. Witnesses told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Israeli troops surrounded at least three schools in Beit Hanoun, forcing hundreds of displaced people sheltering inside to leave.

The drones launched announcements asking people to move south to Gaza City, Mahmoud al-Kafarnah said, speaking from one of the schools, as gunfire rang out. “The tanks are out,” he said. “We don’t know where to go.”

Hashim Afanah, who is sheltering with at least 20 people in his family’s home, said forces are evacuating people from homes and shelters.

The UN’s top humanitarian official, Joyce Msuya, told the Security Council on Tuesday that “acts reminiscent of the worst international crimes” were being committed in Gaza. “The daily cruelty we see in Gaza seems to know no bounds,” she said, pointing to recent developments in Beit Hanoun.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants in their numbers, but say more than half of the dead are women and children. Israel says it is targeting Hamas militants hiding among civilians.

The Gaza war began when Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead.

Copyright 2024 NPR