An Israeli airstrike has hit a mosque in central Gaza and Palestinian officials said at least 19 people were killed
An Israeli airstrike hit a mosque in central Gaza and Palestinian officials said at least 19 people were killed early Sunday. Israeli planes also lit up the skyline across the southern suburbs of Beirut, striking what the military said were Hezbollah targets.
The strike in Gaza hit a mosque where displaced people were sheltering near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. Another four people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town.
The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead from the strike on the mosque were all men, while another man was wounded.
In Beirut, the strikes reportedly targeted a building near a road leading to Lebanon’s only international airport and another formerly used by the Hezbollah-run broadcaster Al-Manar.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the one-year mark, nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest conflict, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Here is the latest:
KAH, Syria — Hundreds of thousands of people have crossed the border from Lebanon to Syria in the past two weeks amid an escalating Israeli air campaign in Lebanon.
Videos circulated on social media in recent days showed hundreds of people walking from government-controlled areas of Aleppo province to areas controlled by Turkish-backed opposition groups.
In the town of Kah in northwestern Syria near the Turkish border, Bashir Ankour said the journey from Lebanon had taken his family five days. He had fled to Lebanon in 2013 to escape the civil war in Syria.
He lived in the southern suburbs of Beirut and worked as a vegetable seller before Israeli forces began bombarding the area. When a strike hit near their house, Ankour said he took his wife and five children and fled, leaving most of their belongings behind.
“I fled from there for the sake of my children and family — I don’t want to lose them, too,” he said. While the situation in Syria is also “difficult,” Ankour said he had made up his mind. “I will never return to Lebanon.”
PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron’s office said the French leader has had a “frank” discussion about the Middle East situation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Both leaders accepted their divergence of views, as well as their desire to be well understood by each other, Macron’s office said in a statement.
Macron expressed his country’s solidarity with the Israeli people, especially the victims, the hostages in Gaza and their families.
“France’s commitment to Israel’s security is unwavering”, Macron was quoted as telling Netanyahu.
But Macron added that arms deliveries, the prolongation of the war in Gaza and its extension to Lebanon will not produce security for either Israelis or others living in the region.
The phone call on Sunday between the two leaders comes after Macron drew strong criticism from Netanyahu by saying, “the priority is … that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza.”
A ferry carrying hundreds of evacuees from Lebanon’s port town of Tripoli has arrived in southern Turkey.
The ferry, which arrived Sunday at Tasucu port, carried 358 evacuees. It was the fourth such vessel to arrive from Tripoli since Sept. 27. A total of 1,360 evacuees have arrived in Turkey on that route.
“America and the West pretend to call for human rights, but in reality there is nothing,” evacuee Yahya Nasser said. “There were many attacks on civilians, on children, on women, there was no respect for human rights or for anyone.”
The evacuees included several Turkish citizens.
The Lebanon-based Med Star company has increased the frequency of passages between Tripoli and Mersin since the escalation of the fighting between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes in less than two weeks. Israel says it aims to drive Hezbollah from its border so that tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return home.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli police say heavy damage was caused by rocket fire from Lebanon on the northern Israeli town of Ma’alot Tarshiha.
Israeli media showed images of a makeshift structure outside a home in the town engulfed by fire. There were no reports of injuries.
The Israeli military said dozens of rockets and numerous drones entered Israeli territory from Lebanon on Sunday, most were intercepted or fell in open areas.
Iran has halted some flights from 9 p.m. Sunday until 6 a.m. Monday, state media reported.
The state-run IRNA news agency made the announcement without giving a reason for the decision other than to say it was for “operational restrictions.
