• Two more Israeli soldiers gunned down in Palestinian enclave
• Rockets fired from Lebanon wound 11 in Israel
• Military claims killing Hezbollah commander

GAZA: Israel on Saturday again carried out deadly air strikes on north Gaza, where the UN calls conditions “apocalyptic”, as Lebanon’s Hezbollah intensified rocket fire near Israel’s capital of Tel Aviv.

Since late September Israel has been engaged in full-scale war against Hezbollah in Lebanon while fighting continues against the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

Israel’s military on Saturday said dozens of fighters were killed around Jabalia “in aerial and ground activity”. Troops were also operating in central Gaza and Rafah in the territory’s far south, it added, while witnesses said Israeli drones and boats opened fire on Al-Mawasi in south Gaza.

Medics and Gaza’s civil defence rescuers on Saturday reported three people killed in a strike on Nuseirat, in central Gaza, a day after AFP images showed the blood-stained shrouds of several people killed there in an Israeli strike.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that at least 43,314 people have been killed in the year-long war between Israel and Palestinian fighters.

The toll includes 55 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 102,019 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7, 2023.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that two more Israeli soldiers had been killed in the southern Gaza Strip, increasing the total number of soldiers killed in combat in the Palestinian enclave and Lebanon since October 2023 to 780.

The war has threatened to spiral even further after Israel and Iran attacked each other over the past few months.

Iran’s supreme leader vowed on Saturday a further response to attacks against the Islamic republic and its allies.

“The enemies, both the USA and the Zionist regime, should know that they will definitely receive a tooth-breaking response to what they are doing against Iran, the Iranian nation, and the resistance front,” supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. He was referring to Iran-aligned groups which also include those in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

Rockets from Lebanon

Rockets fired from Lebanon wounded 11 people in central Israel on Saturday, Israeli emergency services said, after one of them hit a house, as prospects for a ceasefire dimmed.

Fighting has escalated between Israeli forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah group since September, and hopes that a US push this week for a ceasefire have faded.

“We went out and saw dust, children screaming, women screaming and everyone went to the house that was struck,” said Qasim Mohab, a resident of Tira, where the rocket hit. “We were able to evacuate and rescue those who were inside the house, and thank God we were blessed that there was no one killed.”

Around the time the rockets hit, Hezbollah said it had targeted a military base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Israel’s ambulance service said that 11 people were hurt by shrapnel. Air raid sirens continued to sound in northern Israel as rocket fire and drone attacks from Lebanon continued, the military said.

Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.

The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed Jaafar Khader Faour, a commander of Hezbollah’s Nasser Brigade rocket unit in southern Lebanon, and said he had been responsible for multiple attacks on Israel since October 2023.

Hezbollah did not immediately comment or confirm Faour’s death.

Israeli naval forces captured a senior Hezbollah official, Imad Amhaz, in an operation in northern Lebanon on Friday, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on X, citing an Israeli official.

After nearly a year of tit-for-tat exchanges over Israel’s northern border, which Hezbollah said were in support of Hamas, Israel on September 23 escalated its bombing campaign against targets in Lebanon and later sent in ground troops.

Hezbollah has since fired more deeply into Israel.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2024