Israeli strikes on Sunday killed dozens of people in Gaza, civil defense rescue teams said, most of them in northern Gaza, where the UN and others say humanitarian conditions are catastrophic.

A Lebanese source in Lebanon, Israel’s second war front, reported that a Hezbollah spokesman was killed in an Israeli raid.

Vowing to stop the resurgence of Hamas in already war-torn northern Gaza, Israel launched its air and ground operation in Jabaliyah on October 6 and then expanded it to Beit Lahia.

The clashes come more than a year after Palestinian militants triggered the Gaza war with an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.

On Sunday, Gaza’s civil defense agency said 34 people, including children, were killed and dozens were missing following an overnight Israeli airstrike on a five-story residential building in Beit Lahia.

“Due to constant fire and artillery fire, the chances of rescuing more wounded are diminishing,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

“The whole area was shaking” and “we all thought death was near,” said Jaber Ghabayen, who was staying elsewhere but whose family lived in the razed building.

The Israeli military said there was “ongoing terrorist activity in the Beit Lahia area” and that several attacks targeted militant targets there.

“We emphasize that there are continuous efforts to evacuate the civilian population from the active war zone in the region,” the army said in a statement. The statement was included.

In other deadly attacks, Bassal said 15 people were killed in attacks on refugee camps in central Gaza, while Israel killed five people in a drone strike on the southern city of Rafah.

Also to the south, in the Khan Yunis region, civil defense said an Israeli drone targeted a group of unarmed people delivering aid, killing six people.

The total death toll in the more than 13-month war has reached 43,846, Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday.

According to ministry figures deemed reliable by the United Nations, the majority of those killed were civilians.

Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to AFP’s calculation based on official Israeli figures.

– Nasrallah’s confidant was killed –

Israel has been fighting on two fronts since September, when Lebanon intensified air strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah and sent ground troops against militants in southern Lebanon. This followed nearly a year of cross-border clashes in which Hezbollah said it supported Hamas.

A Lebanese security source said on Sunday that Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif was killed in an attack on the Ras al-Nabaa district in central Beirut; this is one of the relatively few attacks outside the group’s strongholds. The Israeli army declined to comment.

In previous attacks claimed by Israel, senior Hezbollah officials, including its leader Hassan Nasrallah, were killed in late September.

Afif was part of Nasrallah’s inner circle and was in charge of Hezbollah’s media relations for years; He often provided information to journalists while hiding his identity.

Earlier, AFPTV footage showed multiple attacks on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold after the Israeli army warned people to evacuate.

Further south, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported seven attacks on the village of Cibsheet in less than two hours, with more attacks on villages near the Israeli border.

The Lebanese army, which is not party to the conflict, said Israel “directly targeted” an army headquarters in southern Lebanon and killed two soldiers.

The Israeli military said about 20 shells crossed into Israel from Lebanon on Sunday and some were intercepted.

The United Nations force in southern Lebanon said peacekeepers were fired on about 40 times on Saturday, possibly by “non-state actors” trying to prevent a patrol from passing through the south. No injuries were reported.

– ‘Humanitarian disaster’ –

In recent weeks, Israeli attacks on Baalbek in Lebanon’s east and Tire in its south (both Hezbollah strongholds) have struck near ancient Roman ruins designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites.

A petition published on Sunday, a day before a key UNESCO meeting, was signed by 300 leading cultural figures, including archaeologists and academics. He called on the United Nations to protect Lebanon’s heritage and establish “non-target zones”.

Lebanese authorities say that more than 3,452 people have died since October last year, with most deaths recorded since September.

Israel says 48 soldiers fighting against Hezbollah were killed.

A UN-backed assessment on November 9 warned that famine was imminent in northern Gaza as hostilities increased and food aid came to a near halt.

In a joint statement on Sunday, the foreign ministers of Jordan and Qatar called for “immediate” action to “end the unprecedented humanitarian disaster in northern Gaza”, blaming “Israel’s failure to allow aid to enter”.

The United States, Israel’s biggest military supplier, said last week that Israel had not violated U.S. laws regarding the level of aid entering Gaza but called for further progress.

Police in Israel said they arrested three suspects in connection with two flares that fell near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in the town of Caesarea in his absence.

Israeli parliament speaker Amir Ohana blamed anti-government protesters for being behind the incident.

Protesters reconvened late Saturday in Tel Aviv, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Caesarea, to reiterate their demands that the government agree to the release of dozens of hostages held in Gaza.

Qatar announced last week that it was suspending its mediation role until Hamas and Israel showed “seriousness” in negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of hostages.

burs-dv/it/srm