Heavy Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza, 9 killed in strikes on Lebanese villages

Israeli strikes on two villages Saturday, one north of Beirut and another south of the capital, killed at least nine people, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

An “Israeli enemy strike on Maaysra”, a Shiite Islam majority village in a mostly Christian mountain area north of Beirut, killed “five people and wounded 14 others”, the ministry said in a statement, adding separately that “four people were killed and 14 others wounded” in an “Israeli enemy strike” on Barja in the Shouf district south of the capital.

Palestinians in northern Gaza described heavy Israeli bombardment Saturday in the hours after airstrikes killed at least 22 people, as Israel continued to tell people there and in southern Lebanon to get out of the way of its offensives against the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups.

In Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping force said its headquarters in Naqoura had again been hit, with a peacekeeper struck by gunfire late Friday and in stable condition. It wasn’t clear who fired.

The shooting occurred a day after Israel’s military fired on the headquarters for the second straight day. Israel, which has warned the peacekeepers to leave their positions, didn’t immediately respond to questions.

Hunger warnings emerged again as residents in northern Gaza said they hadn’t received aid since the beginning of the month. The UN World Food Program said no food aid had entered the north since Oct. 1. An estimated 400,000 people remain there.

Israel’s military renewed its offensive in northern Gaza almost a week ago while escalating its air and ground campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in the Zarout coastal area south of Beirut. The Health Ministry said it killed four and wounded 14. Hezbollah continued to fire into Israel.

“We will keep standing with the Lebanese people during these difficult circumstances and also with the Palestinian people,” the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said Saturday while touring the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.

In northern Gaza, residents told The Associated Press many were trapped in their homes and shelters with dwindling supplies while seeing bodies uncollected in the streets as the bombing hampered emergency responders.

Those who rushed to the scene of the latest deadly airstrikes in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya found a hole 20 meters (65 feet) deep where a home once stood.

At least 20 bodies were recovered as of Saturday morning, while others likely were trapped under the rubble, emergency service officials said. Elsewhere in Jabaliya, a strike on a home killed two brothers and wounded a woman and newborn baby, the officials said.

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warned Saturday against a “catastrophic” regional conflict as Israeli forces battled Hezbollah and Hamas militants on two fronts, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

Israel has faced a fierce diplomatic backlash over incidents in south Lebanon that saw five Blue Helmets wounded.

On Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry said Israeli air strikes on two villages located near the capital Beirut killed nine people.

Israel had earlier told residents of south Lebanon not to return home, as its troops fought Hezbollah militants in a war that has killed more than 1,200 people since September 23, and forced more than a million others to flee their homes.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza started after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, when militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not specify between combatants and civilians. Gaza’s Health Ministry said hospitals had received the bodies of 49 people killed over the past 24 hours.

With inputs from agencies.