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Israeli air strikes have killed scores of individuals in northern Gaza over the weekend as Israel continues its offensive in opposition to Hamas days after eliminating the group’s chief Yahya Sinwar.
Palestinian well being officers stated that a minimum of 87 folks had been killed or lacking within the northern city of Beit Lahia on Saturday night time and within the early hours of Sunday, with many nonetheless trapped underneath the rubble.
The estimated toll brings the variety of Palestinians killed or lacking in Gaza since Friday night time to greater than 100, in accordance with officers within the strip.
Hamas stated Israel had focused residential buildings in Beit Lahia and that almost all of these killed had been girls and youngsters.
The Israeli navy stated the demise toll launched by Gazan authorities was exaggerated, in accordance with its preliminary evaluation, including that it had struck a Hamas goal.
However Tor Wennesland, the UN’s particular co-ordinator for the Center East peace course of, stated: “Horrifying scenes are unfolding in northern Gaza.”
“The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying,” he stated in an announcement. “I condemn the persevering with assaults on civilians. This battle should finish, the hostages held by Hamas have to be freed, the displacement of Palestinians should stop.”
Israel’s strikes in northern Gaza come as western and Arab nations had hoped to make use of the demise of Sinwar, who masterminded final 12 months’s October 7 assault on Israel that triggered the battle, to revive their efforts to press for a ceasefire and safe the discharge of hostages.
However Israel has continued to combat on a number of fronts, together with in Lebanon, the place it launched a strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday and has pushed on with a floor offensive in opposition to Hizbollah within the south.
The Lebanese navy stated on Sunday that three of its troopers had been killed in an Israeli strike on a military car in southern Lebanon. The IDF stated it had focused a Hizbollah base and weapons storage within the strike on Beirut, however didn’t instantly touch upon the military strike.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Saturday that Israel was “decided to realize all our battle targets and alter the safety actuality in our area for generations to come back”.
He accused Hizbollah of attempting to “assassinate” him after the Israeli navy stated a drone fired by the Iran-backed group hit a construction within the northern seaside city of Caesarea, the place Netanyahu has his personal residence. The prime minister’s workplace confirmed that the house was focused however stated Netanyahu and his spouse weren’t current and nobody was damage.
Israeli authorities additionally stated one individual was killed on Saturday and 10 injured when Hizbollah rockets struck the northern cities of Kiryat Ata, Shlomi and Acre.
Hizbollah has vowed that “a brand new and escalating section in its confrontation” with Israel was within the offing because it seeks to regroup after struggling a sequence of devastating blows in current weeks, together with final month’s assassination of its chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel has continued to launch air strikes throughout Lebanon, together with bombing the southern suburbs of Beirut for the primary time in a number of days on Saturday and launching a drone strike on a Christian space.
In northern Gaza, the Israeli navy has pressed on with navy operations which have killed scores of individuals in current days, together with a minimum of 33 folks within the Jabalia refugee camp on Friday night time, in accordance with Palestinian well being officers.
However in an indication of Hamas’s continued navy capabilities, an Israeli colonel was killed and different officers injured by an improvised explosive system in Jabalia, the IDF stated on Sunday.
After Israeli forces killed Sinwar, Israel’s most needed man, in southern Gaza on Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken stated Washington would “redouble” its efforts to finish the battle in Gaza, which is considered as essential to efforts to halt the escalating battle between Israel and Hizbollah.
However regardless of Sinwar’s demise, Hamas has continued to insist it might solely comply with a deal to free the hostages and halt the preventing if there was a everlasting ceasefire and Israeli forces withdraw from the strip.
Netanyahu has stated that battle will solely finish if the militant group lays down its weapons and releases the captives. There are estimated to be 101 hostages remaining in Gaza, although many are believed to be useless.
The Israeli prime minister has refused to simply accept a everlasting ceasefire or to agree to tug troops out of the strip, the place the offensive has killed greater than 42,000 folks, in accordance with Palestinian well being authorities.
The Israeli navy has been conducting a weeks-long offensive in devastated northern Gaza, which has been centered round Jabalia, one of many few locations the place folks stay within the strip’s north after most had been pressured to flee to the enclave’s south.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN company for Palestinian refugees, stated one other 20,000 folks needed to flee Jabalia on Saturday, including that the final remaining hospitals had been reporting a important scarcity of gasoline and medical provides.
The UN stated two out of three hospitals working in northern Gaza have been immediately hit, warning that the “assaults are deepening an already alarming humanitarian disaster”.
Cartography by Jana Tauschinski
