An Israeli air strike has destroyed a five-storey residential building sheltering displaced families in Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, killing at least 109 Palestinians and wounding dozens.
Hezbollah has announced Naim Qassem will succeed slain leader Hassan Nasrallah as secretary-general of the group.
World leaders have denounced Israel’s ban on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), calling it “intolerable”, “illegal” and “nothing less than collective punishment”.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said at least 60 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon, making it the deadliest day for the region since the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.
In Gaza, at least 43,020 people have been killed and 101,110 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks and more than 200 were taken captive.
In Lebanon, at least 2,710 people, including at least 127 children, have been killed and 12,592 wounded in Israeli attacks since the war in Gaza began.
Monday’s deaths raise the overall toll to more than 1,700 killed in Lebanon since the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted late last month, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.
The real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.
Baalbek governor Bachir Khodr decried what he called the “most violent” raids on the area since the start of the conflict.
Baalbek is an impoverished region in the Bekaa Valley that borders Syria.
The heavy strikes there on Monday were not preceded by an evacuation warning.
They came as Israel pounded south Lebanon, including the coastal city of Tyre, according to the official National News Agency.
The Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on September 23 after nearly a year of cross-border fire between the two rivals.
The war has displaced at least 1.3 million people, more than 800,000 inside Lebanon according to the UN’s migration agency.
More than half a million people have crossed into Syria, according to Lebanese authorities, most of them Syrians.”We are still receiving a number of martyrs and wounded,” Safia said, adding that the hospital was struggling to treat patients due to a lack of staff and medicines.
“There is noting left in the Kamal Adwan Hospital except first aid materials after the army arrested our medical team and workers when they invaded the hospital during the military operation in Jabalia,” Safia said.
Last week, the Gaza health ministry said Israeli troops had stormed the hospital, while the Israeli military said it was operating around it.
Since October 6, the military has conducted a sweeping air and ground assault in northern Gaza, particularly in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, in what it describes as an operation to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.
In a statement issued on Tuesday morning, the military said it had carried out several ground and air strikes in Jabalia over the past day, killing around 40 militants.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee northern Gaza since the onslaught began, while the civil defence agency has reported hundreds of deaths.
