According to the Israeli military, four soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah drone strike

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Hezbollah drone strike on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and seriously injured seven others on Sunday, the military said. This was the militant group’s deadliest attack since Israel’s launch Ground invasion in Lebanon almost two weeks ago.

Lebanon-based Hezbollah described the attack near the town of Binyamina as retaliation Israeli attacks on Beirut On Thursday, 22 people were killed. It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani Brigade and fired dozens of missiles during the attack by “squadrons” of drones to occupy Israeli air defense systems.

According to the Israeli emergency service, 61 people were injured in the attack. With Israel’s advanced air defense systems, it is rare for so many people to be injured by drones or missiles. Since then, there have been almost daily firefights between Hezbollah and Israel the war in Gaza began and the fighting escalated.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 20 people in Gaza on Sunday evening, including children at a school, according to two local hospitals. The school in Nuseirat housed some of the many Palestinians displaced by the war.

Meanwhile, explosions occurred outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah early Monday. People were carried to the hospital.

Hezbollah’s deadly attack in Israel came on the same day the United States announced it send a new air defense system to Israel to strengthen protection against missiles and the troops required for operations. An Israeli army spokesman declined to provide a timeline.

Israel is currently at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Gaza Lebanon – both Iranian-backed militant groups – and is likely to attack Iran in retaliation for a rocket attack earlier this month. Iran has said it will respond to any Israeli attack.

Netanyahu describes the UN peacekeepers as Hezbollah’s “human shield”.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said Israeli tanks forcibly entered the gates of a position early Sunday and destroyed the main gate. They later fired smoke bullets near peacekeepers, which caused skin irritation. UNIFIL called the incident “another blatant violation of international law.”

International criticism is growing after Israeli forces fired repeatedly UN peacekeepers since the ground operation began in Lebanon. Five peacekeepers were injured in attacks on their positions, most of which were attributed to Israeli forces.

The military claims Hezbollah is operating close to the peacekeepers, without providing evidence.

The Israeli military said a tank trying to evacuate wounded soldiers drove back toward a UN post under fire on Sunday. A smoke screen was used to provide cover, it was said.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani claimed Israel tried to maintain constant contact with UNIFIL and that any incident in which UN troops were harmed was being investigated at the “highest level.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on UNIFIL to heed Israel’s evacuation warnings, accusing it of “providing a human shield” to Hezbollah.

“We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers and are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of danger,” he said in a video addressed to the UN Secretary-General. who was banned from entering Israel.

Israel has long accused the United Nations of being biased against it, and since the war in Gaza began, relations have fallen even further.

Israeli attack in Lebanon destroys Ottoman-era market

A day after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, leading to retaliatory attacks on Israel. The conflict escalated in September with Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders.

Earlier this month, Israel launched a ground operation. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, more than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since September. It is not stated how many of these were Hezbollah fighters. At least 58 people have been killed in rocket attacks on Israel, almost half of them soldiers.

Overnight Israeli airstrikes destroyed an Ottoman-era market in Lebanon’s southern town of Nabatiyeh, killing at least one person and wounding four.

“Our livelihoods have all been razed to the ground,” said Ahmad Fakih, whose shop was destroyed. Rescue workers searched dilapidated buildings as Israeli drones buzzed overhead.

The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah targets, without elaborating, and said it continued to target the militants on Sunday.

Separately, the Lebanese Red Cross said medics were searching for the injured in a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon when a second attack left four medics with concussions and damaged two ambulances.

The Red Cross said the operation was coordinated with U.N. peacekeepers, who informed the Israeli side.

Bodies rot on the streets of the northern Gaza Strip

Israel continues to attack alleged militant targets in the Gaza Strip almost daily. The military says it is trying to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas and other armed groups for their deaths because they operate in densely populated areas.

In the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli air and ground troops attacked Jabaliya, where the military said the militants had regrouped. Over the past year, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the refugee camp that was set up the 1948 war over the creation of Israeland other areas.

Israel has ordered the complete evacuation of the northern Gaza Strip, including Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 people remain in the north after a mass evacuation ordered in the first weeks of the war.

The Palestinians fear that this is what Israel plans to do permanently depopulate the north to build military bases or Jewish settlements There.

According to the United Nations, no food has entered the northern Gaza Strip since October 1st.

The military confirmed hospitals were included in the evacuation orders but said it had not set a timetable and was working with local authorities to facilitate patient transfers.

Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service, said the bodies of a “large number of martyrs” had still not been picked up from the streets and rubble.

“We can’t reach them,” he said, claiming that dogs are eating some remains.

The war began When Hamas-led militants attacked a year ago, they killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250. About 100 hostages are still being held in Gazaa third are considered dead.

According to the Gaza Strip Health Ministry, Israel’s bombing and ground invasion of Gaza have killed over 42,000 Palestinians left much of the territory in ruins. The ministry does not distinguish between militants and civilians but says women and children account for over half of the deaths.

Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants without providing evidence.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb and Abby Sewell in Beirut and Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

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For more on AP’s war coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.