‘The whole area was shaking’: Dozens killed, missing in Israeli strike on Gaza

Displaced Palestinians fleeing Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip walk on the main Salah al-Din road on Sunday. Photo / AFP
Israeli strikes on Sunday killed dozens of people in Gaza, civil defence rescuers said, most of them in northern Gaza where the UN and others have decried disastrous humanitarian conditions.
In Lebanon, Israel’s second war front, a Lebanese source reported the death of Hezbollah’s spokesman in one Israeli raid.
Vowing to stop Hamas from regrouping in already war-ravaged north Gaza, Israel on October 6 began its air and ground operation in Jabalia and then expanded it to Beit Lahia.
The fighting comes more than a year after the Palestinian militants triggered the Gaza war with their unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.
On Sunday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said 34 people were killed including children, and dozens were missing, after an Israeli airstrike hit a five-storey residential building in Beit Lahia overnight.
“The chances of rescuing more wounded are decreasing because of the continuous shooting and artillery shelling,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Jaber Ghabayen, who was staying elsewhere but whose family lived in the razed building, said “the whole area was shaking” and “we all thought that death was near”.
Israel’s military said there were “ongoing terrorist activities in the area of Beit Lahia” and several strikes targeted militant targets there.
“We emphasise that there have been continuous efforts to evacuate the civilian population from the active war zone in the area,” the military said in a statement.
In other deadly strikes, Bassal said attacks on refugee camps in central Gaza killed 15 people, and an Israeli drone strike on the southern city of Rafah killed five.
Also in the south, in the Khan Yunis area, civil defence said an Israeli drone targeted a group of unarmed people securing an aid delivery, killing six.
Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry on Sunday said the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war had reached 43,846.
The majority of the dead are civilians, according to ministry figures, which the United Nations considers reliable.
Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel has been fighting on two fronts since September when it intensified air raids on Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah and sent in ground troops against the militants in south Lebanon. This followed nearly a year of cross-border clashes that Hezbollah said were in support of Hamas.
A Lebanese security source said on Sunday that Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif was killed in a strike on central Beirut’s Ras al-Nabaa district, one of relatively few attacks outside the group’s strongholds. Israel’s military declined to comment.
Previous strikes claimed by Israel have killed senior Hezbollah officials including its leader Hassan Nasrallah in late September.
Afif was part of Nasrallah’s inner circle and for years was responsible for Hezbollah’s media relations, providing information to journalists, often under the cover of anonymity.
Earlier, AFPTV footage showed several strikes hit Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold, after Israel’s military warned people to evacuate.
Further south, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported seven strikes on Jibsheet village in less than two hours, with more attacks on villages closer to the Israeli border.
Lebanon’s army, which is not a party to the conflict, said Israel “directly targeted” an army centre in south Lebanon, killing two soldiers.
The Israeli army said about 20 projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israel on Sunday, and some were intercepted.
The United Nations force in south Lebanon said peacekeepers were fired upon around 40 times on Saturday, probably by “non-state actor” individuals who tried to prevent a patrol from passing in the south. No injuries were reported.
Several Israeli strikes in recent weeks on Baalbek in Lebanon’s east and Tyre in the south – both Hezbollah strongholds – hit close to ancient Roman ruins designated as Unesco World Heritage sites.
A petition published on Sunday, the day before a crucial Unesco meeting, was signed by 300 prominent cultural figures, including archaeologists and academics. It called on the United Nations to safeguard Lebanon’s heritage and establish “no-target zones”.
Lebanese authorities say more than 3452 people have been killed since October last year, with most casualties recorded since September.
Israel says 48 soldiers have been killed fighting Hezbollah.
A UN-backed assessment on November 9 warned famine was imminent in northern Gaza, amid the increased hostilities and a near-halt in food aid.
Jordan and Qatar urged “immediate” action to “end the unprecedented humanitarian disaster in northern Gaza”, their foreign ministers said in a joint statement on Sunday, blaming “Israel’s failure to allow aid to enter”.
The United States, Israel’s top military supplier, last week said Israel was not violating US law on the level of aid entering Gaza but called for further progress.
In Israel, police said they arrested three suspects over two flares that landed near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in the town of Caesarea while he was away.
The Speaker of Israel’s Parliament, Amir Ohana, accused anti-government protesters of being behind the incident.
Protesters had gathered again in Tel Aviv, about 40km south of Caesarea, late on aturday to reiterate demands that the Government reach a deal to free dozens of hostages still held in Gaza.
Qatar last week said it had suspended its mediator role until Hamas and Israel show “seriousness” in truce and hostage-release talks.