Intense Israeli shelling in northern Gaza as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon hit again – Chicago Tribune

Intense Israeli shelling in northern Gaza as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon hit again – Chicago Tribune

BEIRUT — Palestinians in northern Gaza described heavy Israeli shelling Saturday in the hours after airstrikes that killed at least 22 people, as Israel continued to tell people there and in the south Lebanon to withdraw from its offensives against the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

In Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping force said its headquarters in Naqoura had been hit again, with a peacekeeper hit by gunfire Friday evening and in a stable condition. It was not clear who had fired the shots. The shooting occurred a day after the Israeli army fired on the headquarters for the second day in a row. Israel, which warned peacekeepers to leave their positions, did not immediately respond to questions.

Hunger alerts re-emerged as residents of northern Gaza said they had not received aid since the start of the month. The United Nations World Food Program said no food aid had entered the north since October 1. Around 400,000 people remain there.

The Israeli army renewed its offensive in northern Gaza almost a week ago while intensifying its air and ground campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Lebanese National News Agency said an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in the coastal area of ​​Zarout, on the edge of Barja, south of Beirut, and the Health Ministry said four people had been killed. The ministry said another airstrike on the village of Maisra, northeast of Beirut, killed five people.

The total death toll in Lebanon over the past year of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah now stands at 2,255 deaths, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Hezbollah continued to fire on Israel.

“We will stand with the Lebanese people in these difficult circumstances and also with the Palestinian people,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on Saturday as he visited the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.

Gazans are trapped

In northern Gaza, residents told The Associated Press that many were stuck in their homes and shelters, with supplies dwindling, as they saw unrecovered bodies in the streets as the bombings hampered relief efforts.

Those rushing to the scene of the latest deadly airstrikes in the Jabaliya urban refugee camp discovered a 20-meter-deep hole where a house once stood.

At least 20 bodies were found Saturday morning, while others were likely trapped under the rubble, emergency officials said. Elsewhere in Jabaliya, a strike on a house killed two brothers and injured a woman and a newborn, officials said.

Another strike in the afternoon hit a house in Jabaliya and killed at least four people, including a woman, said Fares Abu Hamza, an emergency services official.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the strikes. Military spokesman Avichay Adraee asked residents of parts of Jabaliya and Gaza City to evacuate south to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone because Israel plans to use large force “and will continue to do so.” to do for a long time.”

Israel has repeatedly returned to parts of Gaza as Hamas and other militants regroup. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often repeatedly.

Once again, some families moved south on foot, in donkey carts, or crammed into vehicles that navigated piles of rubble. Others refused to go.

“It’s like the first days of the war,” said Jabaliya resident Ahmed Abu Goneim. “The occupation is doing everything to uproot us. But we won’t leave.

The 24-year-old said Israeli warplanes and drones had struck numerous neighboring houses over the past week. He counted 15 relatives and neighbors, including four women and five children barely 3 years old, killed in neighboring houses. He said there were dead people in the streets and “no one is able to collect them because of the bombings.”

Hamza Sharif, who lives with his family in a school-turned-shelter in Jabaliya, described “constant bombing day and night.”

He said the shelter had not received any assistance since the beginning of the month. “Families are depending on what they have stored, but they will run out of supplies very soon,” he said.

Food is running out

The World Food Program said it was unclear how long the limited food supplies it had distributed earlier in northern Gaza would last.

The UN’s independent right to food investigator last month accused Israel of waging a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians, which Israel denied.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza began after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, when militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250 others.

The Israeli offensive has killed more than 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 in the past 24 hours.

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