According to the Palestinian authorities, 15 people were killed in the Gaza Strip overnight in several Israeli attacks.
An airstrike early Friday morning in Gaza City hit a family home, killing six people, including an unknown number of children, Gaza’s Civil Defense reported. Another person was killed in Gaza City when a strike hit a group of people on the street.
Israel claims it only attacks militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military, which rarely comments on individual attacks, had no immediate comment.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the area since the Hamas attack on October 7. The ministry makes no distinction According to the count, between combatants and civilians, only slightly more than half of the dead were women and children.
Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Meanwhile, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah vows to take revenge on deadly attacks on his communications equipment after the Israeli Defense Minister “new phase” of the warFears are growing that the 11-month-old gun battle between the two sides could escalate into all-out war.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after the October 7 Hamas attack, which War between Israel and HamasThey have come several times close to a full-fledged war.
Here’s the latest news:
Palestinian authorities report 15 people killed in Gaza
According to the Palestinian authorities, 15 people were killed in the Gaza Strip overnight in several Israeli attacks.
An airstrike early Friday morning in Gaza City hit a family home, killing six people, including an unknown number of children, Gaza’s Civil Defense reported. Another person was killed in Gaza City when a strike hit a group of people on the street.
In Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City, another person was killed and several others injured when a vehicle was hit by an Israeli strike, the Civil Protection reported.
On Thursday evening, six more people were killed in an attack on a house in central Gaza City, while another was killed in Beit Lahya, north of Gaza City.
Israel claims it only attacks militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military, which rarely comments on individual attacks, had no immediate comment.
The war has caused enormous destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants.
Iraqi militia leader reportedly killed in Syria
BAGHDAD — A leader of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia was killed in an attack in Syria on Friday, a war monitor and a militia official said.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that a leader of the Iraqi Kataeb Hezbollah group (a different group from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah) was killed and another person wounded in a drone strike on the car they were travelling in on their way to Damascus airport.
An Iraqi militia official confirmed that a car carrying a group of militia members was hit in Damascus, killing one person and wounding three others. He declined to say which militia the targeted individuals belonged to. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
There was no comment from Israeli officials on the attack. Israel regularly attacks Iranian and Iranian-linked groups in Syria but rarely acknowledges the strikes.
Tensions in the region have risen after a spate of apparently remotely detonated explosions in Lebanon targeted pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The attacks, widely blamed on Israel, which has not commented, killed at least 37 people, including two children, and wounded some 3,000.
– By Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad
Israeli military says it has killed two Hezbollah members who planted explosives along the border
BEIRUT — The Israeli army killed two Hezbollah members who were planting explosives along the border over the weekend, the Israeli army and a Lebanese group official said.
The official for a Lebanese group said the two members of the militant group were killed on Sunday and their bodies were taken away by Israeli forces because they were too close to the fence along the tense border. The official spoke on condition of anonymity on Friday because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
On Thursday, the Israeli military released a video it said was taken by one of the fighters, showing the militants under fire. The military said the two fighters were killed by Israeli forces as they attempted to plant an improvised explosive device near a military post.
In the days following the tense interaction at the border, thousands of devices exploded in several parts of Lebanon and Syria, killing 37 people and wounding about 3,000 others. The attack was blamed on Israel, and many of the dead and wounded were members of Hezbollah.
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Associated Press editor Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.
