Overnight Israeli air strikes on Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria have killed dozens, as Hezbollah continued to escalate rocket fire into Israel, and aid groups warned that forced evacuations of north Gaza hospitals are putting vulnerable patients at risk.
Lebanese media reported 20 deaths in attacks on the south and western Bekaa Valley region, while an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza killed at least 16, local medics said.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on Thursday morning it had attacked more than 140 targets in Lebanon and Gaza over the past 24 hours, claiming to have “eliminated many terrorists.”
The Israeli military also claimed to have killed a Hezbollah member in southern Syria, alleged to be supplying targeting information for attacks on Israeli troops.
Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon continued with several cross-border raids reported. It remains unclear how far Israeli forces have advanced into Lebanese territory, with operations subject to military censorship in Israel.
The IDF reported the death of a soldier in fighting with Hezbollah on Thursday, the 12th Israeli soldier confirmed to have been killed during the ground offensive.
Hezbollah said it had fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel, with two Israeli soldiers reportedly injured in the city of Kiryat Shmona, where two civilians were killed by rocket fire on Wednesday.
Israeli army radio reported a spokesperson for the local municipality urging some residents to “leave the city” due to the threat of rockets.
About 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from northern regions by the fighting. Israeli officials say the ground offensive aims to allow them to return home. But Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has hinted at wider goals, warning on Tuesday that Lebanon could face “a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”
More than a million people have been displaced and more than 2,000 killed in Lebanon during the fighting, local officials said, with aid groups reporting a humanitarian crisis with medical services and emergency shelters overstretched.
“Lebanon finds itself facing a conflict and a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, said on Wednesday.
Israel has ordered all residents of north Gaza to evacuate as it aims to isolate Hamas militants, with fierce fighting and intensive air strikes reported around the Jabaliya refugee camp.
The heads of three hospitals in the area say they are complying with Israeli evacuation orders, despite gunfire and artillery shelling around the facilities. Aid groups have expressed concern over vulnerable patients such as premature babies, and sick and elderly patients.
A coalition of aid groups operating in Gaza, including Oxfam and Save the Children, warned the forced evacuations “will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in the north, and has prevented international and national humanitarian organisations from carrying out already very limited life-saving aid operations.”
“The new orders have obstructed humanitarian actors from providing necessities such as health services, clean water, food and nutrition services, taking away the remaining lifelines for the civilian population.”
