The attacks are being carried out as the humanitarian situation in both places deteriorates and ceasefire talks resume with no expected progress.
More than 150 people are believed to have been killed in the latest Israeli attacks in northern Gaza and Lebanon.
At least 93 Palestinians were killed Tuesday when an Israeli attack razed a five-story residential building housing displaced people in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, the head of the Gaza government’s media office said. Overnight, at least 60 people were killed in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.
Israel carried out these attacks as the humanitarian situation in Gaza and Lebanon deteriorates. Conditions in northern Gaza, besieged by Israel since early October, are particularly harsh.
Despite the high death toll and the worsening plight of those still living in northern Gaza, the resumed ceasefire talks in Qatar are unlikely to result in a breakthrough as Israel has decided to suspend the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees). UNRWA), which provides the main lifeline for most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in Gaza, described harrowing scenes from the strike in Beit Lahiya.
“The images we see show more bodies being pulled from the rubble, including women and children,” he said.
Those who were pulled from the rubble were bleeding “profusely”, many of them “crushed by the weight of the large chunks of concrete which collapsed on their heads while they slept”.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, the main medical facility in northern Gaza, said more than 150 dead and wounded had arrived after the attack. However, he warned that many of the injured were at risk of dying due to lack of resources.
Israeli forces arrested dozens of medical staff at the hospital last week, leaving only three doctors.
“We call on the world to send specialized medical delegations,” the doctor told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“Most violent day”
In eastern Lebanon, overnight attacks in the Bekaa Valley killed at least 60 people and injured 58, the Public Health Ministry reported.
The highest toll was recorded in the town of Sahl Allak, in Baalbek province, where 16 people were killed, according to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA).
In Ramm, also in Baalbek, an Israeli airstrike killed nine people, including a mother and her four children, the official news agency reported.
The mayor of Baalbek, Bachir Khodr, described these strikes as “the most violent day in Baalbek since the beginning of the aggression.” He said in a post on X that people remained trapped under the rubble.
Israeli bombing of the area as well as southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs has intensified in recent weeks as part of an offensive against Hezbollah that has also killed hundreds of civilians.
In Gaza, at least 43,020 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during attacks carried out by Hamas that day, and more than 200 were captured.
