People flee war in Lebanon as Israel expands bombardment

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The military told Palestinians to leave the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, which is at the center of obstacles to a cease-fire deal. The military ordered people in parts of the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camp to leave because it has designated a humanitarian zone.

Palestinian medical officials said Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza on Saturday killed at least nine people. One in the northern town of Beit Hanoun killed at least five, including two children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Another hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least four, Awda hospital said.

Almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the Health Ministry there, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. Nearly one-fifth of the residents of Gaza are displaced.

Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others. The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a brief war in 2006. Nine soldiers have been killed in Israel’s confrontation with Hezbollah.

Other displaced families now shelter alongside Beirut’s famous seaside Corniche, their wind-flapped tents just steps from luxury homes. “We don’t care if we die, but we don’t want to die at the hands of Netanyahu,” said Om Ali Mcheik.

Hilal, a Syrian refugee in Lebanon, said that they traveled for two days. The roads were very busy. We almost died getting here.” Some children cried.

Hundreds of people continue to cross the Masnaa Border crossing on foot, crunching over the rubble left by Israeli bombing, despite huge craters on the road leading to it. Iran is thought to have supplied Hezbollah with most of its weaponry.

The strikes have killed many civilians, including children, since the beginning of the month. The total death toll in Lebanon has risen to 1000, with more than one million people displaced by the Israeli assault.

Netanyahu spoke on Saturday evening and said Israel has the right to defend itself and respond to attacks. He said that we are not done yet on Lebanon.

Iran’s foreign minister told reporters in Damascus that they are trying to get a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon. The minister said the unnamed countries putting forward initiatives include regional states and some outside the Middle East.

The military of Israel said it was shooting at targets near Beirut, with some of the projectiles crossing from Lebanon into Israel.

Israel has killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began , in addition to most of the top leadership of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah as fighting has sharply escalated.

Israeli attacks on the Beersheba mosque during the Oct. 7 start-of-the-war in Gaza, a day after Israel’s first attack

The targets included a gas station on the main highway leading to the Beirut airport and a warehouse for medical supplies, the agency said. There were a lot of explosions due to some of the overnight strikes.

After Israel’s military urged residents to leave Dahiyeh, a mostly Shiite collection of suburbs on the southern edge of the city, there were many strong explosions over the weekend. AP video showed the blasts illuminating the densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. They followed a day of sporadic strikes and the nearly continuous buzz of reconnaissance drones.

Thousands of people in Lebanon, including Palestinian refugees, continued to flee the widening conflict in the region, while rallies were held around the world marking the approaching anniversary of the start of the war in Gaza.

On the eve of those ceremonies, a knife and gun attack in the southern city of Beersheba has left one person dead and 10 others wounded, according to Israeli emergency services.

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

Israel said it had been a “precision strike” on the mosque, targeting Hamas militants inside, but mourners said the approaching one-year mark of the fighting in Gaza was a horrible reminder of the costs families there have faced, with more than 41,000 deaths recorded in the past 12 months.

An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. The dead from the mosque were all men according to hospital records.

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In the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, Israeli ground troops have encircled a sizeable swathe of territory, where they say they have launched a large-scale assault against Hamas fighters for the first time in months, forcing civilians once more to flee.

Residents posted about the airstrikes and mourned their relatives on social media. Imad Alarabid said in a Facebook post that an airstrike on his home in Jabaliya killed a dozen family members, including his parents. The Health Ministry medic said he was wounded and bleeding.

Hassan Hamd, a freelance TV journalist whose footage had aired on Al Jazeera and other networks, was killed in artillery shelling on his home in Jabaliya. The Al Jazeera reporter in Gaza has confirmed his death.

The military says it has expanded the humanitarian area in southern Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of people have already sought refuge in sprawling tent camps there with little in the way of food, water or toilets. Israel has launched strikes in the humanitarian zone to help it find people who are hiding.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack and took another 250 hostage. Around 100 people are still being held, three of which are believed to be dead.

Israel intensified its air campaign on Lebanon overnight, hitting the area with more than 30 strikes.

Hezbollah said it successfully hit a group of Israeli soldiers with a rocket. It was impossible to confirm the claim.

Military and diplomatic support that Israel has received from the United States is at stake in the conflict. Fighters from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen have joined in with strikes on Israel.

In the northern part of the Gaza strip, commanders ordered all of the residents to leave as the Israeli military dropped leaflets warning of a new phase of war.

The Israeli attacks in Lebanon and the lives of displaced families, as described by Yasmine Al Jamal, a girl whose father died

“Enough, world, enough, tomorrow will be a complete year,” said Hakima Al Jamal, as she watched her dying father be carried out of the mosque. “We are tired. By God, we’re so tired.”

The commemorations of the October 7, 2007, attacks that killed 1,200 people are to take place in some of the communities that were affected by Hamas.

“There is no safe place” Riqad said Saturday. The Israelis are bombing all over. As he spoke, two young children in his family asked an adult relative if the bombs would reach them at the hotel where a politician affiliated with Hezbollah had granted shelter to them and other displaced families.

Four days ago, Riqad, who had fled Israeli attacks in the southern city of Tyre, arrived in Lebanon with his family from the southern suburbs of Beirut after expressing concerns for his safety.

The impact on the society of Lebanon was shocking. One pre-med student, who gave only her first name Yasmin, had started college only a month earlier.

I expected it would be one of the best years of my life. I’ve worked so much to get to the university I am in,” she said. “Now, all I miss is my university days … the coffee there, my friends, studying in the library. That’s all I want now.”