Israeli attack on a mosque in Gaza leaves 19 dead

Deir Al-Balah. An Israeli attack on a mosque in the Gaza Strip killed at least 19 people on Sunday, Palestinian officials said, as Israel stepped up its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut in a widening war with militant groups allied with Israel. Iran throughout the region.

Israel is still fighting Hamas a year after the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and has opened a new front in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has exchanged fire with Israel since the war in Gaza began. Israel vowed to attack Iran after Tehran launched ballistic missiles at it last week.

Expanding the conflict risks further straining the United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel. Iran-allied militia groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have already joined long-distance attacks against Israel.

Attack on Israeli city

A stabbing and shooting attack at the central bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba left one dead and 10 injured, according to first responders. Police did not identify the attacker but said they consider the incident a terrorist attack.

The attack came as Israel is on high alert ahead of events marking the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, which set in motion a year of violent escalation across the region.

An Israeli strike in Gaza hit a mosque where displaced people were sheltering near the main hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah. Four other people were killed in an attack on a school-turned-shelter near the city. The Israeli military said both attacks targeted militants, without providing evidence.

An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that those killed in the mosque attack were all men.

The Israeli military announced a new air and ground offensive in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, home to a densely populated refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war over the creation of Israel. Photos and videos circulated showing a column of tanks heading toward the area.

The army surrounded Jabaliya as fighter jets hit militant targets before the advance. During the war, Israel has conducted several operations there, only to see the militants regroup later.

The army also said three soldiers were severely wounded in the fighting in northern Gaza.

Israel reiterated a warning it issued in the first weeks of the war, when it called for the complete evacuation of northern Gaza. It is estimated that up to 300,000 people have remained in the devastated north despite previous Israeli warnings that caused a million people to flee to the south.

“We are in a new phase of the war,” the army said in pamphlets dropped on the site. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.”

Palestinian residents reported intense Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza. Civil Defense, an emergency service operating within the Hamas-led government, said they recovered three bodies, including a woman and a child, after an attack hit a home in the Shati refugee camp. He added that there are four other people missing.

Many people wrote on social media about the bombings and expressed their sorrow for their relatives. Imad Alarabid said on Facebook that an airstrike on his home in Jabaliya killed a dozen of his relatives, including his parents. Saeed Abu Elaish, a doctor at the Health Ministry, said he was injured and bleeding.

Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since the war began, according to the Ministry of Health. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militiamen, but many of the dead are women and children.

Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack and took another 250 hostages. They still hold about 100 captives, of whom a third are believed to have died.

In Beirut, airstrikes lit up the sky and loud explosions echoed through the night in the southern suburbs, an area known as Dahiyeh, as Israel pounded what it described as targets of Hezbollah’s military branch.

More than 30 attacks shook the area overnight, the most intense bombardment since September 23, when Israel increased its air campaign, according to the National News Agency, a Lebanese state media.

Among the targets were a gas station on the main highway leading to Beirut airport and a medical supplies warehouse, the agency said. Some of the night’s impacts caused a long series of explosions, suggesting they may have hit ammunition depots.

The Israeli army confirmed that it was attacking targets near Beirut and said that some 30 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, some of which were intercepted.

For its part, Hezbollah reported in a statement that it had successfully attacked a group of Israeli soldiers near the settlement of Manara, in northern Israel, “with a large barrage of rockets that accurately hit them.” It was not possible to confirm his statement.

At least 1,400 people, including civilians, medical personnel and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and around 1.2 million have had to flee their homes in less than two weeks. Israel says it is trying to push Hezbollah away from the border so that tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return to their homes.

Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful armed force which is also backed by Iran, began launching rockets into Israel almost immediately after the Hamas attack on October 7, saying it was a show of support for the Palestinians. Hezbollah and the Israeli army have exchanged fire almost daily.

Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation in southern Lebanon, following a series of attacks that killed Hezbollah leader Sayed Hassáa Nasrallah and others. The fighting is the bloodiest since Israel and Hezbollah fought a brief war in 2006. Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in intense ground fighting in which Israel says 440 Hezbollah fighters have been killed.

It was not possible to verify battlefield reports from both sides.

Macron reiterates call for arms embargo

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, reiterated this Sunday his call for a partial arms embargo to be imposed on Israel, an initiative that provoked an angry response from Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a written statement, Macron’s office said the president favors stopping arms exports for use in Gaza because a ceasefire is needed “to stop the escalating violence, free the hostages, protect the civilians and clear the way for the political solutions necessary for the security of Israel and the entire Middle East.”

Macron had previously made similar statements, to which Netanyahu responded with a video statement in which he mentioned the French president by name and called his requests a “disgrace.”

Macron’s office insisted that “France is Israel’s constant friend” and called Netanyahu’s comments “excessive and irrelevant to the friendship between France and Israel.”