Israel’s bombardment on Beirut escalates as it launches incursion in northern Gaza

The heavy bombardment from Israeli airstrikes lit up the skyline in Beirut overnight into Sunday and loud explosions echoed across the southern suburbs. At the same time, a deadly attack in the Gaza Strip hit a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people, killing at least 26 people and wounding 93 others.

Displaced people were sheltering at the mosque that was struck near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. A further four people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town.

The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.

Israel has been battling Hamas in Gaza a year after the group’s attack and has opened a new front in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with Israel along the border since the war in Gaza began. Israel has also vowed to strike Iran itself after Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel last week.

In Beirut, Israel said the strikes overnight targeted a building near a road leading to Lebanon’s only international airport and another formerly used by the Hezbollah-run broadcaster Al-Manar.

Israel’s military confirmed it was striking targets near Beirut and said about 30 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, with some intercepted.

Hezbollah said it successfully targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel “with a large rocket salvo, hitting them accurately.” It was not possible to confirm the claim.

In northern Gaza, the Israeli army issued new evacuation orders in Jabaliya, home to a densely populated refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

Israeli forces encircled Jabaliya as warplanes struck militant sites inside, the military said. Over the course of the war, Israel has carried out several large operations there, only to see militants regroup.

“We are in a new phase of the war,” the military said in leaflets dropped over the area. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.”

Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said it has expanded the so-called humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, urging people to head there.

On Sunday, Palestinian residents reported heavy Israeli strikes across northern Gaza.

“The war is back,” said Raed, 52, from Jabalia, before he and his family left for Gaza City on Sunday.

“Dozens of explosions from airstrikes and tank shelling shook the ground and buildings, it felt like the early days of the war,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

The latest strikes in Gaza add to the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which is nearing 42,000, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, but many of the dead were women and children.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in Israel’s escalation of violence in Lebanon, officials say.