Deadly Strikes On Gaza, Lebanon As Israel Faces Aid Deadline

Israeli air strikes killed dozens of people in Lebanon and Gaza Sunday, rescuers and authorities said, ahead of a US deadline for improved aid delivery to the Palestinian territory.

Rescuers in the Gaza Strip said 13 children were among 30 people killed by Israeli strikes in the territory's north.

The first strike early Sunday hit a house in Jabalia, killing at least 25 people including 13 children and injuring more than 30, Gaza's civil defence agency said.

At around 6:00 am, "there was a very huge explosion" at the Alloush family home, said relative Abdullah al-Najjar.

"When we arrived here, all the bodies were torn apart," the distraught man added.

Vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in already ravaged north Gaza, Israel on October 6 began a major air and ground assault.

The United Nations has described the area as "under siege", and Washington set a deadline of this coming week for Israel to get more aid in or face possible cuts to military assistance.

After the strike in Jabalia, Israel's military said it hit "infrastructure" in which militants were operating and "posed a threat" to troops in the area.

"Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians," a military spokesman said.

Another strike on the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City killed five people, the civil defence agency said.

In Lebanon, the health ministry said an Israeli strike on the village of Almat north of Beirut killed 23 people including seven children.

"Under the rubble, there are only children, elderly men and women," Hezbollah lawmaker Raed Berro said at the scene, denying Israeli allegations that Hezbollah members or weapons were embedded among civilians.

The ministry reported at least another 12 dead in strikes on the Baalbek area in the east where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

In the south, Israeli strikes killed three Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers, the ministry said.

A war monitor also reported that an Israeli strike on an apartment belonging to Hezbollah south of Syria's capital Damascus killed seven people.

Since late September Israel has been engaged in a two-front war after turning its focus north towards Lebanon.

Israel admitted for the first time Sunday it was behind a wave of deadly attacks on Hezbollah communications devices in September.

Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman said the Israeli prime minister "greenlighted the pager operation in Lebanon" in which hundreds of devices exploded.

The attacks killed nearly 40 people and wounded some 3,000 others, and preceded Israel's ongoing military operation in Lebanon.

Israel escalated air strikes and later sent in ground troops after almost a year of tit-for-tat exchanges of fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah. The Lebanese group said it was acting in support of Hamas.

The war in Gaza erupted with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 43,603 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.

Israel's main military backer the United States on October 15 warned that it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless Israel improves aid delivery to the Gaza Strip within 30 days -- a deadline that expires on Wednesday.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at the time that top US officials made "clear" to Israel's government that changes need to be made "to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today".

The demand came before Tuesday's vote for President-elect Donald Trump, who has suggested he would give freer rein to Israel.

On Saturday, a UN-backed assessment warned that famine is imminent in northern Gaza.

Fewer aid shipments were allowed into Gaza than at any time since October 2023, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report.

The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of "an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation".

Israel's military questioned the report's credibility.

A military statement denounced "partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests".

The IPC says its process is "evidence-based" and ensures "a rigorous, neutral analysis".

The heads of UN agencies in early November described north Gaza as "under siege" and denied "basic aid and life-saving supplies".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hopes to use the remaining weeks of his term to press for an end to the Gaza and Lebanon wars, a spokesman said on Thursday, before fellow mediator Qatar said Saturday it had suspended its role in trying to broker a deal.

"Qatar would resume those efforts... when the parties show their willingness and seriousness," Doha's foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said in a statement.