(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
AFP
Israel said a drone targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence on Saturday, as Hezbollah launched a barrage of projectiles into Israel from its northern neighbour Lebanon.
On the southern front, Israel hammered Gaza with air strikes, with an overnight raid on Jabalia in the north killing 33 people, according to the besieged civil defence agency.
Netanyahu's office said the prime minister and his wife were not at their residence in the central town of Caesarea during the drone attack and there were no injuries. Earlier, the military said a drone launched from Lebanon had "hit a structure" in Caesarea.
Sirens blared across Israel throughout the morning as Hezbollah fired projectiles from various locations in Lebanon.
The Iran-backed group said it launched a large salvo of advanced rockets at a military base in Israel's Haifa region.
A man in the northern Israeli port city of Acre died after being struck by shrapnel, the Magen David Adom emergency service said, while shrapnel also wounded five people in the Haifa city of Kiryat Ata.
Late last month Israel ramped up air strikes on Lebanon and deployed ground forces after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges.
The fighting in Gaza came after the Israeli military killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Wednesday.
On Friday, Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya reiterated no hostages would be freed "unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops".
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose country also backs Hamas, said the group "will not end at all with the martyrdom of Sinwar".
'The killings continue unabated'
As fighting raged in Gaza, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal announced "33 deaths and dozens of wounded" in an Israeli strike on the northern area of Jabalia overnight.
The Israeli military said it was "looking into it".
Early on Saturday, three houses in the Jabalia refugee camp were targeted, the civil defence agency said, while witnesses told AFP there was heavy gunfire and shelling in the direction of the camp.
Israeli forces have focused their attacks on northern Gaza, where they say Hamas is regrouping.
Witnesses also reported Israeli shelling in central Gaza's Al-Bureij camp.
Israeli forces, accused of targeting health facilities, were shelling Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza, medics there said.
The violence has dashed hopes Sinwar's death might bring the war closer to an end.
"We always thought that when this moment arrived, the war would end and our lives would return to normal," 21-year-old Gazan Jemaa Abu Mendi said.
"But unfortunately, the reality on the ground is quite the opposite. The war has not stopped, and the killings continue unabated."
Israel's campaign to crush Hamas and bring back the hostages has killed 42,519 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers reliable.
A conservative estimate puts the death toll among children in Gaza at over 14,100, said James Elder, spokesman for the United Nations children's agency UNICEF.
For the one million children in the besieged territory, "Gaza is the real-world embodiment of hell on Earth", he said.
Criticism has been mounting over the civilian toll and lack of food and aid reaching Gaza, where the UN has warned of famine.
MENAFN19102024000063011010ID1108797265
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.