Israeli strikes leave 30 dead in Gaza and Beirut
• Attacks in Palestinian enclave target tent encampment designated as humanitarian zone
• Schools closed in Lebanese capital after air raid
CAIRO: Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip and central Beirut killed 30 people on Monday, including six people in attacks on tents housing displaced families, medics said.
In Gaza, four Palestinians, two of them children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, which is designated as a humanitarian zone, while two died in temporary shelters in the southern city of Rafah and another in drone fire, Gaza health officials said.
In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, medics said an Israeli missile struck a house, killing at least two people and wounding several others. On Sunday, medics and residents said dozens of people were killed or wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a multi-floor residential building in the town.
Another airstrike on a house in Gaza City killed seven people and wounded 10, medics said. Later on Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed four people in the Nuseirat camp in the central area of the coastal enclave, they added.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry said Monday that at least 20 people were killed during a security operation against “gangs” that looted trucks bringing aid to the war-torn territory.
“More than 20 members of gangs involved in stealing aid trucks were killed in a security operation carried out by security forces in cooperation with tribal committees”, the ministry said in a statement.
Strikes on Beirut
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Monday 10 people died in Israeli strikes on central Beirut a day earlier, after Hezbollah said four members were killed alongside its spokesman in one attack.
“The Israeli enemy strike on Ras al-Nabaa in Beirut led to a final toll of seven dead, including a woman and 16 others wounded,” a ministry statement said, raising an earlier toll of four dead and 14 wounded.
Hezbollah said on Monday that the strike, which killed its spokesman Mohammed Afif, also killed four members of its media team.
Schools in Beirut were closed on Monday after the rare strikes on central districts of the Lebanese capital. The strikes prompted the education ministry to shut schools and higher education institutions in the Beirut area for two days.
Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2024