By Israeli airstrikes killed at least 46 people in Gaza and 33 in Lebanon Tuesday, including an attack on a makeshift cafeteria in a designated humanitarian zone, as violence escalated across multiple fronts in the widening regional conflict.
In southern Beirut, explosions rocked the Hezbollah-dominated Dahiyeh neighborhood after Israeli forces issued evacuation warnings for 11 buildings. The military claimed it targeted Hezbollah infrastructure, including command centers and weapons sites, without providing evidence. Elsewhere in Lebanon, an Israeli strike on an apartment building east of Beirut killed six people, including three children, while another attack in central Lebanon killed 15 people, among them eight women and four children.
“The strike came without warning,” said Wael Murtada, whose uncle’s family had fled to the building from Dahiyeh last month. Several people remain missing, he added.
In Gaza, an Israeli strike hit a cafeteria in Muwasi, designated as a humanitarian zone, killing 11 people including two children Monday night, according to Nasser Hospital officials. Video footage showed rescuers pulling casualties from an enclosure of corrugated metal sheets where tables and chairs were arranged in sand.
The violence continues as the U.S. State Department declined to reduce military support for Israel despite a deadline for increased humanitarian aid access to Gaza. While citing some progress, international aid groups say Israel failed to meet U.S. demands.
Additional strikes Tuesday killed 15 people in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, including relatives of Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat. Among the dead were volunteer doctors Mohamed and Dima Shabat and their daughter Eliaa, according to Kamal Adwan Hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya. Twenty more people died in central and southern Gaza strikes, Palestinian medical officials reported.
The conflict has spread to northern Israel, where a Hezbollah drone struck a nursery school near Haifa, though children were in bomb shelters and unharmed. A rocket attack in Nahariya killed two people and wounded two others.
Israel has intensified its bombardment of Lebanon since September, vowing to stop Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks and disable the militant group’s capabilities. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the latest Gaza casualties.
AP
