An 18-month-old boy and his 10-year-old sister were among the 25 people killed in a series of Israeli attacks on central Gaza, hospital officials said.

It was initially reported that 16 people were killed in two attacks on the central Nuseyrat refugee camp on Thursday, but officials from Al-Aqsa hospital said bodies were still being brought in.

The hospital said that 21 bodies were received after the attacks, and some of them were transferred from Awda hospital where they were taken the previous day.

Four more people died in attacks on a motorcycle in Zuwaida and a house in Deir al-Balah on Friday, bringing the total death toll to 25, hospital officials said.

It was stated that five children and seven women were among those confirmed dead.

The family said that the 18-month-old child’s mother was missing and his father was killed in an Israeli attack four months ago.

Palestinian news agency WAFA had previously reported that 57 people died in Israeli attacks.

The Israeli military did not comment on specific attacks but said its soldiers identified and eliminated “several armed terrorists” in central Gaza.

It was also stated that their forces eliminated “dozens of terrorists” in raids on the Jabalia region, which hosts one of the refugee camps in the north of Gaza.

It comes after the Israeli military announced on Friday that it had killed senior Hamas official Izz al-Din Kassab in an airstrike in Khan Younis, describing him as one of the last high-ranking members.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have resumed intense operations in northern Gaza over the past few weeks, claiming they are trying to prevent the regrouping of Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza.

Meanwhile, senior UN officials said on Friday that the situation in northern Gaza is “apocalyptic” and that the entire Palestinian population in the area “is at risk of dying from disease, famine and violence”.

The total number of people killed in Gaza’s 13-month war is more than 43,000, officials from the region’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, reported this week.

Read more:
‘This is our land, we deserve it’
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Israel launched dozens of intense air strikes on farming villages in northeastern Lebanon on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding 72, Lebanese health officials said.

The attacks hit rural villages that had not previously been worst affected by Israel’s intense air strikes against Hezbollah.

Baalbek Governor Bachir Khodr reported that air strikes were carried out on nine villages in the northeast.

State news agency NNA separately reported that four more people were killed in the small farming village of Ollak.

Israel has intensified air strikes on Baalbek and nearby villages, as well as different parts of southern Lebanon, in recent days, causing about 60,000 people to flee their homes, according to Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese official representing the region.

The Israeli army said in a statement that the attacks “in the Beirut area” targeted Hezbollah’s weapons production facilities, command centers and other infrastructure.

Israeli planes also hit Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, throughout the night, destroying dozens of buildings in many neighborhoods, according to Lebanon’s state news agency.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said more than 2,800 people have been killed and more than 13,000 injured since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated following a Hamas attack on October 7 last year.

Meanwhile, seven people, including three Israelis and four Thai citizens, died in northern Israel on Thursday as a result of bullets fired from Lebanon, Israeli medics said.