Heavy Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza, while Lebanese peacekeepers fired again, according to the UN

Palestinians inside northern Gaza Strip described heavy Israeli bombings on Saturday in the hours after airstrikes that killed at least 22 people, as Israel warned people there and in southern Lebanon to avoid offensives against the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

In LebanonThe UN peacekeeping force said its headquarters were in Naqoura was hit againwith a peacekeeper who was struck by gunfire late Friday and is in stable condition. It was not clear who fired. It came a day after the Israeli military fired on the headquarters for the second consecutive day, wounding two peacekeepers. Israel, which had warned peacekeepers to leave their positions, did not immediately respond to questions.

In a statement Saturday evening, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday and “expressed deep concern about reports that Israeli forces were deployed at both U.N. peacekeeping positions in Lebanon as well as firing on UN peacekeeping positions in Lebanon.” the reported death of two Lebanese soldiers.

Israel’s military renewed its offensive northern Gaza Strip nearly a week ago as it escalated its air and ground campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Amid Israel’s war with Hezbollah, a senior U.N. official, Carl Skau, told The Associated Press he was concerned that Lebanon’s ports and airports could be rendered inoperable. More than a million people were displaced.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired more than 300 projectiles over Yom Kippur, the holiest and most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. The military also said it killed 50 militants in Lebanon. Claims on both sides could not be verified.

Gaza is facing severe food shortages

There were renewed hunger warnings in northern Gaza as residents said they had not received aid since the beginning of the month. According to the United Nations World Food Program, no food aid has reached the north since October 1st. An estimated 400,000 people still live there.

The World Food Program said it was unclear how long the limited food supplies it had previously distributed in northern Gaza will last.

The U.N. independent investigator on the right to food last month accused Israel of waging a “hunger campaign” against Palestinians, which Israel has denied.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza began after the Hamas attack on October 7, when militants stormed Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250 others.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive. There is no clear distinction between combatants and civilians. Gaza’s Health Ministry said hospitals had received the bodies of 49 people killed in the last 24 hours.

Israel launches new round of attacks against Lebanon

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, Israeli airstrikes hit several areas in the south and east of Lebanon on Saturday. Nine were killed in the northeastern village of Maisra. Four were killed in a residential building on the outskirts of Barja, south of Beirut. Rayak and Tal Chiha hospitals in the Bekaa Valley were damaged. Eight people were injured in Nabatea.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon killed a total of 2,255 people last year. More than 1,400 people have been killed since mid-September. It is not clear how many were fighters.

“We will continue to stand with the Lebanese people and also the Palestinian people in these difficult circumstances,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Saturday as he toured the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.

Northern Gaza residents trapped in homes and shelters

In the northern Gaza Strip, residents told the AP that many were trapped in their homes and shelters and supplies were running low, while they saw bodies in the streets that had not been collected as bombing hampered emergency services.

Those who rushed to the scene of the latest deadly airstrikes in the Jabaliya urban refugee camp found a 20-meter-deep hole where a house once stood.

At least 20 bodies were recovered, while others were likely lying under rubble, emergency services officials said.

Elsewhere in Jabaliya, two brothers were killed and a woman and a newborn baby were injured in an attack on a house, officials said. At least four people, including a woman, were killed during an afternoon strike at a house, said Fares Abu Hamza, an emergency services official.

The Israeli military said it killed more than 20 militants in the Jabaliya area over the past day.

Military spokesman Avichay Adraee urged people in parts of Jabaliya and Gaza City to evacuate south to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone because Israel plans to use major force “and will continue to do so for a long time.”

Israel has repeatedly returned to parts of the Gaza Strip as Hamas and other militants regroup. The war has destroyed large parts of the Gaza Strip and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, often multiple times.

Once again, some families moved south on foot, in donkey carts or huddled together in vehicles driving over piles of rubble. Others refused to leave.

“It’s like the first days of the war,” said Ahmed Abu Goneim, a resident of Jabaliya. “The occupation is doing everything to uproot us. But we won’t go.”

The 24-year-old said Israeli warplanes and drones had attacked many neighboring homes over the past week. He counted 15 relatives and neighbors, including four women and five children as young as three, who were killed in neighboring houses. He said there were deaths on the streets.

Hamza Sharif, who lives with his family in a school hostel in Jabaliya, described “constant bombings day and night.”

He said the shelter hasn’t received any help since the beginning of the month and that families “will run out of supplies very soon.”