Israeli strikes on Beirut kill at least 22

According to a new report from the Ministry of Health, 22 people were killed and 117 injured in these strikes, which targeted, according to the official news agency ANI, the densely populated residential district of Ras al-Nabeh and the adjacent Noueiri district. AFPTV showed two columns of smoke rising above the Lebanese capital.

One of these strikes targeted a Hezbollah official, a Lebanese security source told AFP.

This is the third time that the Israeli air force, which concentrates most of its raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, has directly targeted the capital since the launch of its massive strikes against the Lebanese pro-Iranian movement, the September 23.

In the Gaza Strip, where Israel is once again intensifying its bombings and ground operations, the Palestinian Red Crescent announced Thursday the death of 28 people in a strike on the Rafidah school in Deir el-Balah (center) sheltering families displaced people, which also left 54 ​​injured.

The Israeli army spoke of a “precise” air strike on “terrorists” operating “in buildings previously used” as schools.

She also announced that she had killed the head of Islamic Jihad at the Nour Shams camp in the West Bank, Mohammed Abdullah, in an air raid on Thursday. Islamic Jihad, an Islamist movement with strong roots in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, did not immediately confirm.

In Lebanon, the UN force (UNIFIL) deployed between the two countries denounced “repeated” shooting by Israeli troops on its positions, one of which injured two peacekeepers on Thursday, triggering protests from countries contributing to this force, Italy, France, Spain and Ireland.

Italy, which deploys the largest number of troops, 900, within UNIFIL, has spoken of possible “war crimes”. The United States said it was “very concerned” by this information.

The Israeli army claimed to have fired “near” the UNIFIL headquarters, specifying that it had asked UN soldiers to remain “in protected spaces”.

Israel has concentrated its forces on the Lebanese front, taking advantage of the weakening of Hamas after a year of war in Gaza.

But citing an attempt by the Palestinian Islamist movement to reconstitute its capacities in the north of Gaza, it has surrounded Jabalia there since Sunday, shelling the sector, which civilians are fleeing in panic, amid the rubble.

“It doesn’t stop: every minute there are shells, rockets and shots at buildings and everything that moves,” Areej Nasr, a thirty-year-old, who fled Jabalia for the town of Gaza.

According to Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal, at least 140 people have died in Jabalia since the start of the operation, and “a large number” of civilians remain trapped under the rubble, with rescuers unable to intervene. given the security conditions.

The Israeli army announced that three of its soldiers had been killed in the north of the Gaza Strip, bringing its losses there to 353 soldiers over the past year.

At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area, according to the UN. The United Nations International Independent Commission of Inquiry, citing “crimes against humanity”, accused Israel on Thursday of deliberately targeting health facilities in Gaza.