BEIRUT: At least 27 people, including two children, were killed in Israeli air strikes, with around 10 fatalities reported in Nabatieh, south Lebanon, and at least 17 in the Gaza town of Zawayda, according to health officials.
In south Lebanon, the 10 victims of the Israeli airstrike were all Syrian citizens, as reported by the state news agency NNA. The final death toll will be confirmed after DNA tests identify the victims. The Israeli military claimed the strike targeted a weapons depot used by Hezbollah fighters.
The airstrike followed the suspension of ceasefire talks between the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Israel in Doha, with negotiations expected to resume next week.
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In response to the Nabatieh strike, Hezbollah announced it had attacked the Ayelet Hashahar Kibbutz in northern Israel. The Israeli military reported that two soldiers were wounded in a rocket attack from Lebanon, with a total of 55 rockets fired in the latest strikes from Lebanese territory.
Additionally, an Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in the Qadmous area east of Tyre in south Lebanon, killing one person, according to a security source.
The region has experienced heightened tensions in recent weeks, especially after a rocket strike attributed to Hezbollah killed 12 children and teens in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel retaliated by killing a top Hezbollah commander in the suburbs of Beirut.
Casualties in Gaza
At least 17 Palestinians, including eight children and four women, were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza town of Zawayda on Saturday, as Israel issued new evacuation orders, citing nearby Hamas rocket fire. Most of the victims belonged to the same family. Israel’s military acknowledged the reports and is investigating the incident.
Eyewitnesses reported that the victims were asleep in their beds when three missiles struck their home. Despite the Israeli military’s claim that militants were operating in the area, neighbors insisted that there were no military activities in the vicinity.
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On Saturday, Israel’s military spokesperson in Arabic issued evacuation instructions for parts of central Gaza, including the Maghazi district near Zawayda, warning of imminent military action against militants firing rockets from those locations.
Residents reported that thousands were fleeing the area, while Israeli tanks advanced further into the eastern part of Deir Al-Balah, an area sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians.
The ongoing Israeli offensive, now in its tenth month, has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents and devastated large portions of the enclave. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted that recent evacuation orders have affected around 170,000 displaced people, shrinking the so-called “humanitarian area” in Gaza to about 41 square kilometers, or 11% of the enclave’s total area.
