DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – An airstrike hit central Israel on Sunday, injuring more than 60 people, some of them seriously, rescue workers said, in one of Israel’s deadliest attacks in a year of war. The Lebanon-based group Hezbollah claimed responsibility, and said it was targeting a military camp.
Hezbollah said the strike was in retaliation for two Israeli strikes in Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people.
With Israel’s advanced air defense systems, it is rare for many people to be harmed by drones or missiles. Israeli media reported that two drones were launched in Lebanon, while the military said one was captured.
It is not clear whether the soldiers were injured or what was hit in Binyamina town. There were no details from the Israeli army, which earlier reported that at least 115 rockets had been fired into Lebanon.
It was the second drone strike in two days in Israel. On Saturday, during the Israeli holiday of Yom Kippur, one crashed into a Tel Aviv suburb, causing damage but no injuries.
The latest strike came on the same day the United States announced it would send a new air defense system to Israel to help bolster its defenses against ballistic missiles, as well as the troops needed to operate them. An Israeli army spokesman declined to give a timeline.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – both militant groups backed by Iran – and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month, although it has not said how or when. Iran has said it will respond to any Israeli attack.
Netanyahu calls UN peacekeepers ‘human shield’ for Hezbollah
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said that Israeli tanks stormed the gates of one of its areas early Sunday morning and destroyed the main gate, and later blew up smoke near peacekeepers in the area, causing itchy skin. UNIFIL said the incident was “a flagrant violation of international law.”
International criticism is mounting after the Israeli military has repeatedly opened fire on UN troops since the start of operations on the ground in Lebanon. Five peacekeepers have been injured in attacks on their positions in recent days, most of which have been blamed on the Israeli army.
The military says Hezbollah is working closely with the peacekeepers, without providing evidence.
The Israeli army said the tank was trying to evacuate wounded soldiers back to the UN post when it caught fire. It said the smoke screen was used to provide cover.
The spokesman of the army, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani asserted that Israel tried to communicate regularly with UNIFIL and that any incident of harm to UN troops would be investigated “at the highest level.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on UNIFIL to heed Israel’s warnings to withdraw, accusing them of “giving a human shield” to Hezbollah.
“We are sorry for the injuries of UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent these injuries. But the easiest and most obvious way to ensure this is to get them out of danger,” he said in a video addressed to the UN Secretary-General, who is banned from entering Israel.
Israel has long accused the United Nations of being biased against it, and relations have deteriorated since the start of the war in Gaza. Israel has accused the UN refugee agency of Palestine of being infiltrated by Hamas, an allegation denied by the agency.
Israeli strike in Lebanon destroys Ottoman-era market
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, draws retaliatory airstrikes. The conflict escalated in September with Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his top brass.
Israel launched a ground-breaking job earlier this month. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since September, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, which did not say how many were former Hezbollah fighters. At least 54 people have been killed in rocket attacks in Israel, almost half of them soldiers.
Israeli airstrikes overnight destroyed an Ottoman-era market in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, killing at least one person and injuring four. Lebanon’s Civil Defense said it dealt with fires in 12 residential buildings and 40 shops in the market, which began in 1910.
“The way we make a living has changed,” said Ahmad Fakih, whose shop was destroyed. Rescuers search buildings made of honeycombs as Israeli drones buzz overhead.
The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah, without elaborating, and said it continued to target terrorists on Sunday.
Separately, the Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching for the injured in a house destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Sunday, when a second strike left four paramedics stunned and two ambulances injured.
The Red Cross said the plan was coordinated with the UN forces, which told the Israeli side.
Dead bodies rotted in the streets of northern Gaza
A year into the war with Hamas, Israel continues to strike what it says are military casualties in Gaza almost every day. The strike hit a home in Nuseirat refugee camp late Saturday, killing parents and six children aged 8 to 23, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies there.
“They were safe while he was sleeping, he died with all his children,” said the man’s brother, Mohammad Abu Ghali. The women caressed the body bags, crying.
The Israeli army says it is trying to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areas.
In northern Gaza, Israeli air and ground forces have been attacking Jabaliya, where the military says the militants have regrouped. In the past year, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the refugee camp that was built, which began with the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel, and other places.
Israel has ordered a complete withdrawal from northern Gaza, including Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 people remain in the north after many people left in the first weeks of the war. The Palestinians fear that Israel intends to completely destroy the north in order to establish military bases or Jewish settlements there.
The United Nations says no food has entered northern Gaza since October 1.
The army confirmed that hospitals were included in the evacuation orders but said it had not set a timetable and was working with local authorities to facilitate the transfer of patients.
Fares Abu Hamza, head of the emergency department at the Gaza Health Ministry, said the bodies of the “martyrs” have not been collected from the streets and are under the rubble.
“We can’t reach them,” he said, asserting that the dogs eat the remains.
The war began when Hamas-led terrorists attacked last year, killing around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting around 250. About 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, of which one in three is believed to have died.
Israel’s bombing and ground attacks on Gaza have killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and left much of the area in ruins. The ministry does not distinguish between militants or civilians, but says women and children account for more than half of the deaths.
Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
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