Israel launches brutal strikes on Gaza and Lebanon ahead of US aid deadline

Gaza - Israel launched deadly strikes on Gaza and Lebanon Sunday, rescuers and authorities said, ahead of a US deadline for improved aid delivery to the Palestinian territory.

Palestinians carry the body of a victim killed in Israeli strikes toward a cemetery in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 10, 2024.
Palestinians carry the body of a victim killed in Israeli strikes toward a cemetery in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 10, 2024.  © Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP

Rescuers in Gaza on Sunday said 30 people, including 13 children, were killed by Israeli strikes in the territory's north.

The first strike early Sunday hit a house in Jabalia, killing "at least 25" people – including 13 children – and injuring more than 30, the Palestinian territory's civil defense agency said.

Israel on October 6 began a major air and ground assault on northern Gaza.

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The United Nations has described the area as under "siege," and Washington set a deadline of this coming week for Israel to get more aid in or face possible cuts to military assistance.

Another strike on the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City killed five people, with others still missing, civil defense said, adding, "A number of civilians are still under the rubble."

Israel has slaughtered at least 43,603 people in Gaza since October 2023, according to the territory's health ministry. The British medical journal Lancet and other experts believe the true number to be far greater, upwards of 186,000 as of July 2024.

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A destroyed house following overnight Israeli airstrikes on the southern Lebanese village of Ain Baal in the Tyre district on November 10, 2024.
A destroyed house following overnight Israeli airstrikes on the southern Lebanese village of Ain Baal in the Tyre district on November 10, 2024.  © KAWNAT HAJU / AFP

Lebanon's health ministry, meanwhile, said an Israeli strike on the village of Almat north of Beirut killed at least 20 people – including three children – on Sunday.

"The Israeli enemy strike on Almat in the Jbeil district killed 20 people including three children and injured six, in an updated toll," the health ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also said Israeli strikes killed three Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers in the south.

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Earlier, Lebanese official media reported an Israeli strike on a house in the main eastern city of Baalbek, which was not preceded by an Israeli army evacuation warning.

"Enemy aircraft launched a strike on a house in the Al-Laqees neighborhood" of the city, the state-run National News Agency said.

Overnight and Sunday morning, Israel conducted a series of air strikes on southern and eastern villages and locations, NNA said.

Since late September, Israel has escalated its assault on Lebanon with air strikes and a ground invasion.

Israel has killed more than 3,130 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to Lebanon's health ministry, most of them since September 23.

Northern Gaza faces extremely dire conditions

Palestinians walk amid the destruction following an Israeli strike in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 10, 2024.
Palestinians walk amid the destruction following an Israeli strike in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 10, 2024.  © Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP

Israel's main military backer – the US – on October 15 warned that it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless Israel improves aid delivery to the Gaza Strip within 30 days – a deadline that expires on Wednesday.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at the time that top US officials made "clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today."

The demand came before Tuesday's election of Republican Donald Trump.

On Saturday, a UN-backed assessment warned famine is imminent in northern Gaza. Aid shipments allowed to enter Gaza were now lower than at any time since October 2023, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report.

The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of "an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation."

IPC says its process is "evidence-based" and ensures "a rigorous, neutral analysis."

The heads of UN agencies in early November described north Gaza as "under siege" and denied "basic aid and life-saving supplies."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hopes to use the remaining weeks of his term to press for an end to the wars on Gaza and Lebanon, a spokesperson said on Thursday, before fellow mediator Qatar on Saturday said it had suspended its role in trying to broker a deal.

"Qatar would resume those efforts... when the parties show their willingness and seriousness," Doha's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said in a statement.

Cover photo: Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP

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