An Israeli strike on the central Gaza Strip has killed a family of eight, Palestinian medical officials say, as Israeli forces battle Palestinian militants in the territory’s north and airstrikes destroy a century-old market in southern Lebanon.
The strike in Gaza late on Saturday (early Sunday AEDT) hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing parents and their six children, who ranged in age from eight to 23, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, where the bodies were taken.
It said a further seven people were wounded, including two women and a child in a critical condition. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies.
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A year into the war with Hamas, Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza nearly every day. 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 recent months, it has repeatedly struck schools being used as shelters by displaced people, accusing militants of hiding among them.
Israel is waging air and ground campaigns against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month, though it has not said how or when. Iran supports both militant groups and has said it will respond to any Israeli attack.
Bodies rot in the streets as fighting rages in northern Gaza
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 back 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 opening weeks of the war.
The 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 October 1.
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The military confirmed on Saturday that hospitals were included in the evacuation orders but said it had not set a specific timetable and was working with local authorities to facilitate the transfer of patients.
Dr Mohamed Salha, director of Al Awda Hospital, said it was among three hospitals in the north that had received small shipments of fuel that would last for a matter of days. He said they also need medical supplies as casualties continue to stream in, requiring 12 to 15 surgeries each day at his facility alone.
Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service, said there are a “large number of martyrs” still uncollected from the streets and under the rubble.
“We are unable to reach them,” he told The Associated Press, adding that street dogs are eating some of the remains.
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The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. About 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s bombardment and ground invasions of Gaza have killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and left much of the territory in ruins.
Palestinian medical officials do not say whether those killed by Israeli forces are militants or civilians, but say women and children make up over half the fatalities.
Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
Israeli airstrikes destroy Ottoman-era market in Lebanon
Israeli airstrikes destroyed an Ottoman-era market in the southern city of Nabatiyeh overnight, killing at least one person and wounding four more. Lebanon’s Civil Defence said it battled fires in 12 residential buildings and 40 shops in the market, which dates back to 1910.
“Our livelihoods have all been leveled to the ground,” said Ahmad Fakih, whose corner shop was destroyed.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets in the city, without elaborating.
Rescuers were searching for survivors and remains in the pancaked buildings early Sunday as Israeli drones buzzed overhead. Nabatiyeh was one of dozens of communities across southern Lebanon that Israel has warned people to evacuate, even as the city hosts people who have already fled.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which is allied with Hamas, began firing rockets into Israel on October 8, 2023, drawing retaliatory airstrikes. The conflict dramatically escalated in September with a wave of Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his senior commanders. Israel launched a ground operation into southern Lebanon earlier this month.
In a separate incident, the Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching for casualties in the wreckage of a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Sunday when a second strike left four paramedics with concussions and damaged two ambulances.
It said the rescue operation had been coordinated with UN peacekeepers, who informed the Israeli side. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Netanyahu calls UN peacekeepers ‘human shield’ for Hezbollah
Israeli forces have repeatedly fired upon first responders and UN peacekeepers since the start of the ground operation. The military has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to ferry fighters and weapons and says Hezbollah operates in the vicinity of the peacekeepers, without providing evidence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for the peacekeepers to heed Israel’s warnings to evacuate, accusing them of “providing a human shield” to Hezbollah after Israeli strikes wounded five peacekeepers in recent days.
“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 UN 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. It has accused the UN agency for Palestinian refugees of having been infiltrated by Hamas, allegations the agency denies.
At least 2255 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the conflict, including more than 1,400 people since September, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were Hezbollah fighters. At least 54 people have been killed in the rocket attacks on Israel, nearly half of them soldiers.
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