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Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 12, Netanyahu’s home hit with rocket fire
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Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 12, Netanyahu’s home hit with rocket fire

Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip

The strikes killed six people in Nuseirat and another four in Bureij, two refugee camps built in central Gaza that date back to the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.

Two other people were killed in a strike on Gaza’s main north-south highway, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah, which received all 12 bodies.

Gaza’s health ministry says around 43,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but said women and children accounted for more than half of the deaths. About 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians has been displaced, and large areas of the territory have been flattened by Israeli bombardment and ground operations.

The war between Israel and Hamas began after Palestinian militants entered Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and kidnapping another 250. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be that they are dead.

Israeli air raids in Lebanon

In Lebanon, Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs after the army warned people to evacuate at least seven buildings. The militant group Hezbollah has a strong presence in the area, known as Dahiyeh, and the strikes came as Lebanese officials consider a proposed cease-fire brokered by the United States.

The Israeli military posted evacuation warnings on X about an hour before the strikes in south Beirut, which came early Sunday. Local media reported that church bells were ringing in and around the area to alert residents. No casualties were immediately reported.

The Israeli army on Sunday renewed calls for residents of more than a dozen villages in southern Lebanon to flee, as ground troops pushed further north.

Hezbollah began firing missiles, rockets and drones into Israel the day after the 2023 Hamas attack, prompting retaliatory airstrikes. The conflict steadily escalated and erupted into all-out war in September. Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on 1 October.

More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry, and more than 1.2 million have been driven from their homes. It is not known how many of the dead are Hezbollah fighters.

On the Israeli side, Hezbollah airstrikes have killed at least 76 people, including 31 soldiers, and caused an estimated 60,000 people to flee northern communities.

The residence of the Israeli prime minister was attacked with fire rockets

Israeli police have arrested three suspects after shots were fired at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the coastal city of Caesarea.

Netanyahu and his family were not at the residence when two flares were fired at it overnight and were not injured, authorities said. A drone launched by Hezbollah struck the residence last month, also while Netanyahu and his family were away.

Police did not provide details on the suspects behind the fires, but officials pointed to critics of Netanyahu’s domestic policies. Israel’s largely ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, condemned the incident and warned against “an escalation of violence in the public sphere.”

A destroyed car that was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon on Saturday in Haifa, northern Israel, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A destroyed car that was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon on Saturday in Haifa, northern Israel, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg) – Ohad Zwigenberg/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved.

Netanyahu has faced months of mass protests over his handling of the hostage crisis sparked by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.

Critics blame Netanyahu for security and intelligence failures that allowed the attack to take place and for failing to reach an agreement with Hamas to release dozens of hostages still being held in Gaza. Israelis gathered again in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening to demand a cease-fire agreement to return them.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Yariv Levin took advantage of the blitz to call for a renewal of his plans to overhaul the Israeli judiciary, which had sparked months of mass protests before the war.

“The time has come to give full support to the restoration of the justice and law enforcement systems and to put an end to the anarchy, anger, denial and attempts to harm the Prime Minister,” he said in a statement.

Supporters have said the changes to the judiciary aim to strengthen democracy by circumscribing the authority of unelected judges and handing more power to elected officials. Opponents see the overhaul as a power grab by Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges, and an attack on a key security body.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a post on X that he “strongly condemns” the firing of rockets at Netanyahu’s home, while blasting Levin’s proposal.

“Levin should go home with the rest of this irresponsible government,” Lapid wrote. “We will not let him turn Israel into an undemocratic state.”