JERUSALEM (AP) – The Israeli government said Saturday that a drone targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in a battle with Lebanon-based Hezbollah, causing no casualties. Gaza Since then, Hamas has shown no signs of slowing down. murder of the mastermind of last year’s deadly Oct. 7 attack.
The Israeli military said dozens of projectiles had been fired from Lebanon as sirens wailed. prime minister netanyahu The agency said the drone targeted his home in the Mediterranean city of Caesarea, but neither he nor his wife were there.
Israeli security forces secure a road near where the Israeli government said a drone was fired at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea, Israel, Saturday, October 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Shalit)
Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for the drone attack, but said it had carried out several rocket attacks against northern and central Israel. The barrage came at a time when Israel was expected to respond with a counterattack. Iran attack earlier this month.
Israel then conducted at least three airstrikes on the southern outskirts of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, a densely populated area where Hezbollah offices are located. The Israeli military said it was investigating the reported attack.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces opened fire on a hospital in the northern Palestinian enclave, killing more than 50 people, including children, in less than 24 hours, according to hospital officials and an Associated Press reporter there.
“The possibility of war in the region remains a serious concern,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said during a visit to Turkey.
Concentration of artillery fire aimed at northern Israel from Lebanon
of israel Lebanon’s war with Hezbollah Hamas’s allies, backed by Iran, further strengthened it. Hezbollah announced Friday that it plans to send more guided missiles into Israel and detonate a drone to begin a new phase of the fighting. Hassan Nasrallah, the extremist group’s longtime leader, killed in Israeli airstrike In September, Israel sent ground forces to Lebanon.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that about 180 projectiles were fired from Lebanon. A 50-year-old man sitting in a car in northern Israel was killed by shrapnel and four others were injured, Israeli medical authorities said.
A rocket struck the northern city of Kiryat Ata, and Associated Press reporters saw burnt out cars and damaged buildings. Haifa region commander Itzik Bilet said nine people suffered minor injuries. Israeli fire authorities said they were battling multiple fires caused by missiles in the Shlomi area next to the Lebanese border.
Lebanese state news agency reported that an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in the eastern village of Baal-Uul killed five people, including the head of the nearby village of Somor. The Israeli military said it was investigating reports of attacks on buildings in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Lebanese health ministry says Israeli airstrikes have killed two people in a vehicle collision on a highway north of Beirut.
Israel issues almost daily warnings to people in some parts of Lebanon to leave their buildings and villages. The fighting resulted in the evacuation of more than 1 million people, including approximately 400,000 children.
Israel also announced on Saturday that it had killed a Hezbollah deputy commander in the southern town of Bint Jubeir. The military said Nasser Rashid was overseeing attacks against Israel.
Israeli forces attack Gaza as Hamas refuses to release hostages
both Israel and Hamas Resistance to ending war in Gaza after killings Hamas leader Yahya Sinwarwas the chief architect of a Hamas attack on Israel a year ago that killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped another 250.
On Friday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said that while Sinwar’s death was a painful loss, “Hamas is alive and will continue to live.”
Hamas reiterated its position that the hostages taken from Israel a year ago would not be released until a ceasefire is established in the Gaza Strip and Israeli forces withdraw. Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israeli forces would continue fighting until the hostages were freed. remain in Gaza This is to prevent Hamas, which has weakened significantly, from rearming.
Israel’s retaliation attack in gaza Local health authorities say Palestinians have killed more than 42,000 people, with more than half of the dead being women and children, although they do not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Further strikes took place in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. Palestinian telecommunications company Partel said on Facebook that the airstrikes had disrupted internet networks in northern Gaza.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Israeli airstrikes hit the upper floors of the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya, causing panic as troops fired into the hospital building and courtyard. Several staff members were injured in a strike on the top floor of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, the hospital announced.
Three houses in Jabaliya were attacked on Friday night, killing at least 30 people, more than half of them women and children, said Fares Abu Hamza, head of the health ministry’s ambulance and emergency services. At least 80 people were injured.
In central Gaza, at least 10 people, including two children, were killed in an attack on a house in the town of Zawaida, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Eleven people, all from the same family, were killed in separate attacks in the Magaji refugee camp, the hospital said. An Associated Press reporter counted the number of bodies from both attacks.
A United Nations school sheltering displaced people in western Gaza City was also attacked, killing several people, according to the Hamas-run civil defense first response force.
war destroyed vast areas of Gazaabout 90% of the population of 2.3 million people has been displaced and left struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.
Some find hope after Sinwar’s death
Sinwar’s killing could change the dynamics of the war in Gaza, but Israel will increase its pressure. attack on hezbollah Ground forces in southern Lebanon Air strikes in other areas country.
Israel’s allies and exhausted Gaza residents expressed hope that Mr. Sinwar’s death would be spared. pave the way To end the battle.
Families of hostages are still being held in Israel in Gaza demanded that the Israeli government take advantage of Sinwar’s murder. as a way to restart negotiations to bring their loved ones home. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, and Israel says at least 30 of them have died.
Israel had pledged to politically destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and killing Shinwar was a top military priority. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in announcing the killing that “our war is not over yet.”
___
Associated Press writers Jack Jeffrey in Ramallah, West Bank, and Bassem Mourou in Beirut contributed to this report.
