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Israel, at war against Hamas and Hezbollah, carried out strikes on Sunday in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon which left dozens dead, including many children, according to Palestinian and Lebanese sources.
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November 10, 2024 – 3.30pm
(Keystone-ATS) The Israeli army seeks to incapacitate the two Islamist movements, after the start of the war in Gaza triggered by an attack of unprecedented scale and violence carried out by Palestinian Hamas against Israel on the 7th. October 2023.
In retaliation, it launched a destructive offensive which left tens of thousands dead and caused a humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, located on Israel’s southern border.
In support of Hamas, Hezbollah opened a front against Israel on October 8, 2023, which degenerated into open war on September 23 with a campaign of intense Israeli strikes, mainly against the strongholds of the Lebanese movement.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Civil Defense reported “at least” 25 dead, “including 13 children”, in a strike which targeted the house of the Allouche family in Jabalia, in the north of Gaza.
The building was completely razed and transformed into a pile of stones, noted an AFP correspondent.
“This morning, around six o’clock, there was a huge explosion. When we got here, we found torn bodies! “, said Abdallah al-Najjar, a member of the Allouche family, in the midst of the destruction.
“This is the bread they wanted to eat for breakfast,” he added, waving a loaf. “What is the point of a piece of bread if there is no security and no peace?” »
“Hell on Earth”
The Israeli army claimed to have targeted a site in Jabalia “where terrorists were operating”, in reference to Hamas considered a terrorist movement by Israel, the United States and the European Union. “Before the strike, numerous measures were taken to limit the risk of injuring civilians,” said a military spokesperson.
Another Israeli strike targeted a house in Gaza City, also in the north, killing five people, according to Civil Defense.
Since October 6, Israeli troops have been carrying out an air and ground offensive against northern Gaza, particularly in Jabalia, where Hamas, according to them, is seeking to regroup its forces.
By decimating its leadership in recent months, the army has inflicted hard blows on Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew from the territory it occupied for 38 years.
Since the start of the war, Israel has besieged the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants of Gaza, most of whom have been displaced and live in conditions described as disastrous by the UN.
The attack of October 7, 2023 carried out by Hamas from Gaza resulted in the death of 1,206 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures and including dead or dead hostages. killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
That day, 251 people were kidnapped. In total, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
More than 43,603 Palestinians were killed in Israeli reprisals in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry.
The Palestinian territory, threatened with famine according to the UN, is a veritable “hell on earth” for the million children who live there, Unicef said in October.
At least 26 dead in Lebanon
In Lebanon, on Israel’s northern border, at least 23 people including seven children were killed in an Israeli strike on the Shiite town of Aalmat, located in a predominantly Christian region north of Beirut, the Health Ministry said. .
AFP images show rescuers searching the rubble of a completely razed house with their bare hands, removing bodies wrapped in blankets. Next to it, an excavator removes the blocks of stone.
An Israeli strike also targeted a house in Baalbeck, eastern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, according to the Ani National News Agency.
And in the south, where Hezbollah is also established, three rescue workers affiliated with this movement were killed in a strike against their center in Adloun, according to the Lebanese ministry.
In addition to daily air strikes, Israeli troops have been carrying out a ground offensive since September 30 in the south of the country, bordering northern Israel.
Israel says it wants to neutralize Hezbollah in the border regions of southern Lebanon to allow the return home of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by fire from the pro-Iranian movement.
