Israeli Forces Kill At Least 18 In Lebanon While Separately Incinerating Dozens In Gaza

You May Be Interested In:24 Hair Products That Are Basically Bottles Of Pure Magic


BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in northern Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 18 people, according to the Lebanese Red Cross.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military and it was not clear what the target was. The strike hit a small apartment building in the Christian-majority village of Aito, far from the Hezbollah militant group’s main areas of influence in the south and east of the country.

Videos from Lebanese media showed a large plume of smoke rising from the hilly village, with several destroyed cars next to a severely damaged building, as people tried to remove bodies from beneath rubble and trees.

The strike came a day after a Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in northern Israel killed four soldiers — all of them 19 years old — and severely wounded seven others in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.

Paramedics with the Lebanese Red Cross transport a body unearthed from the rubble at the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting the northern Christian-majority village of Aito, on October 14, 2024.

Fathi Al-Masri/AFP via Getty Images

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant briefed his US counterpart Lloyd Austin on Monday on the deadly Hezbollah drone attack and vowed “a forceful response” by Israel.

Sixty-one people were wounded in Sunday’s attack. Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets, missiles and drones into Israel over the past year but most have been intercepted or hit in open areas, disrupting daily life but causing few casualties.

Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has vowed to keep up its attacks on Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza. Israel has said its campaign against Hezbollah is aimed at stopping those attacks so displaced Israelis can feel safe returning to their homes near the Lebanese border.

A strike and an inferno in a Gaza hospital courtyard

An Israeli strike sets ablaze a tent camp in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Gaza's Deir al-Balah, on Oct. 14, 2024. The fire burned many Palestinians alive, including patients.
An Israeli strike sets ablaze a tent camp in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, on Oct. 14, 2024. The fire burned many Palestinians alive, including patients.

Abdallah Alattar/Anadolu via Getty Images

Earlier on Monday, an Israeli airstrike on a hospital courtyard in the Gaza Strip killed at least four people and triggered a fire that swept through a tent camp for people displaced by the war, leaving more than two dozen with severe burns.

The Israeli military said the strike in Gaza targeted militants hiding out among civilians, without providing evidence. In recent months it has repeatedly struck crowded shelters and tent camps, alleging that Hamas fighters were using them as staging grounds for attacks.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah was already struggling to treat a large number of wounded from an earlier strike on a school-turned-shelter that killed at least 20 people when the early morning airstrike hit and fire engulfed many of the tents.

Several secondary explosions could be heard after the initial strike, but it was not immediately clear if they were caused by weapons or fuel tanks.

Associated Press footage showed children among the wounded. A man sobbed as he carried a toddler with a bandaged head in his arms. Another small child with a bandaged leg was given a blood transfusion on the floor of the packed hospital.

A Palestinian boy looks at the site of an Israeli strike on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where tents sheltering displaced people went up in flames, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on October 14, 2024.
A Palestinian boy looks at the site of an Israeli strike on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where tents sheltering displaced people went up in flames, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on October 14, 2024.

Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Hospital records showed that four people were killed and 40 wounded. Twenty-five people were transferred to Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza after suffering severe burns, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while Palestinian militants abducted around 250 hostages. Around 100 are still being held inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but says women and children make up more than half the fatalities. Around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war, often multiple times, and large areas of the coastal territory have been completely destroyed.

Israeli rights groups warn of forced transfer in northern Gaza

Palestinians carry their belongings as they flee areas north of Gaza City on October 12, 2024. In recent days, the Israeli military has launched an intense ground and air assault in northern Gaza, particularly in and around the city of Jabalia.
Palestinians carry their belongings as they flee areas north of Gaza City on October 12, 2024. In recent days, the Israeli military has launched an intense ground and air assault in northern Gaza, particularly in and around the city of Jabalia.

Mahmoud Issa/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Israel has ordered the entire remaining population of the northern third of Gaza, estimated at around 400,000 people, to evacuate to the south and has not allowed any food to enter the north since the start of the month. Hundreds of thousands of people from the north heeded Israeli evacuation orders at the start of the war and have not been allowed to return.

That has raised fears among Palestinians that Israel intends to implement a plan devised by former generals in which it would order all civilians out of northern Gaza and label anyone remaining there a combatant — a surrender-or-starve strategy that rights groups say would violate international law.

The plan has been presented to the Israeli government, but it’s unclear whether it has been adopted. The military says it has not received such orders.

Israeli rights groups on Monday called on the international community to prevent Israel from carrying out the plan, saying there are “alarming signs” that Israel is beginning to implement it.

The statement, signed by B’Tselem, Gisha, Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, warned that states “have an obligation to prevent the crimes of starvation and forcible transfer.

Support Free Journalism

Consider supporting HuffPost starting at $2 to help us provide free, quality journalism that puts people first.

Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?

Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. We hope you’ll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.

Support HuffPost

Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip and Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Natalie Melzer contributed from Tel Aviv.

share Paylaş facebook pinterest whatsapp x print

Similar Content

U.S. Warns Israel To Boost Humanitarian Aid Into Gaza Or Risk Weapons Funding
U.S. Warns Israel To Boost Humanitarian Aid Into Gaza Or Risk Weapons Funding
U.N. Says Two Peacekeepers Injured After Lebanon Base Hit By Israeli Strikes
U.N. Says Two Peacekeepers Injured After Lebanon Base Hit By Israeli Strikes
Meet The Affordable, TikTok-Famous Skin Salve That Reviewers Call A ‘Miracle’
Meet The Affordable, TikTok-Famous Skin Salve That Reviewers Call A ‘Miracle’
‘Bibi, What The F**k?’: Biden Allegedly Sparred With Netanyahu Over Lack Of Gaza Strategy
‘Bibi, What The F**k?’: Biden Allegedly Sparred With Netanyahu Over Lack Of Gaza Strategy
19 Items That Have Saved Reviewers And HuffPost Editors Money
19 Items That Have Saved Reviewers And HuffPost Editors Money
NYU Researchers Develop New Real-Time Deepfake Detection Method
NYU Researchers Develop New Real-Time Deepfake Detection Method
News Pizza Time | © 2024 | News