Israeli strikes in Gaza and the Lebanese capital killed scores of people Thursday as Israels military said it was targeting terrorist operatives Th
Israeli strikes in Gaza and the Lebanese capital killed scores of people Thursday, as Israel’s military said it was targeting terrorist operatives.
The Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza sheltering displaced people killed at least 27 people, Palestinian medical officials said.
Israel said the strike targeted militants in a command center that was embedded inside the school.
In the Lebanese capital, an Israeli airstrike hit a building in the central part of the city – far from the Hezbollah stronghold south of Beirut that Israel has bombarded nightly for the past two weeks.
The Lebanese Health Ministry put the death toll at 22 and 117 injured, but it was expected to rise as rescuers sifted through the rubble.
Israeli and Lebanese media speculated that the likely target was Wafiq Safa, the longtime head of Hezbollah’s Liaison and Coordination Unit. There was no immediate confirmation that he was the target or if he was killed.
The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, said Thursday that Hezbollah fired approximately 190 projectiles into Israel during the preceding 24 hours.
The IDF has warned residents in about 100 villages and neighborhoods, mostly in south Lebanon, to evacuate ‘until further notice.’ The United Nations says a quarter of the country’s population is currently displaced.
UN peacekeepers wounded
Separately, the U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said its headquarters in the town of Naqoura came under Israeli tank fire early Thursday. An observation tower was hit, causing two Indonesian peacekeepers to fall to the ground, sustaining injuries that required hospitalization.
