Israel says 4 soldiers killed by Hezbollah drone attack while Israeli strike in Gaza leaves 20 dead

A Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others Sunday the military said in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks agoThe Lebanonbased Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people It later said it targeted Israels elite Golani brigade launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defence systems during the assault by ldquosquadronsrdquo of dronesIsraels national rescue service said the attack wounded 61 With Israels advanced airdefence systems its rare for so many people to be injured by drones or missiles Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire almost daily in the year since the war in Gaza began and fighting has escalatedIsrael launched its ground operation in Lebanon earlier this month with the goal of weakening Hezbollah and pushing the militant group away from the border to allow thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their homesInside Gaza an Israeli airstrike killed at least 20 people including children at a school Sunday night according to two local hospitals The school in Nuseirat was sheltering some of the many Palestinians displaced by the warMeanwhile explosions hit early Monday outside AlAqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir alBalah killing three people and injuring about 50 others the hospital said Tents caught fire and residents of the Central Gaza community carried the injured into the hospitalHezbollahs deadly strike in Israel came the same day that the United States announced it would send a new airdefence system to Israel to help bolster protection against missiles along with troops needed to operate it An Israeli army spokesperson declined to provide a timelineIsrael is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon mdash both Iranbacked militant groups mdash and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month Iran has said it will respond to any Israeli attackNetanyahu calls UN peacekeepers human shield for Hezbollah The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL said Israeli tanks forcibly entered the gates of one position early Sunday and destroyed the main gate They later fired smoke rounds near peacekeepers causing skin irritation UNIFIL called the incident a ldquofurther flagrant violation of international lawrdquo International criticism is growing after Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on UN peacekeepers since the start of the ground operation in Lebanon Five peacekeepers have been wounded in attacks that struck their positions with most blamed on Israeli forcesSteacutephane Dujarric spokesman for UN SecretaryGeneral Antoacutenio Guterres called Sundays incident ldquodeeply worryingrdquo and said attacks against peacekeepers may constitute a war crimeIsraels military says Hezbollah operates in the peacekeepers vicinity without providing evidenceMilitary officials said a tank trying to evacuate wounded soldiers backed into a UN post Sunday while under fire A smoke screen was used to provide cover they saidArmy spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani asserted that Israel has tried to maintain constant contact with UNIFIL and any instance of UN forces being harmed will be investigated at ldquothe highest levelrdquo Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for UNIFIL to heed Israels warnings to evacuate accusing them of ldquoproviding a human shieldrdquo to HezbollahldquoWe regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers and we 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 the danger zonerdquo he said in a video addressed to the UN secretarygeneral who has been banned from entering IsraelIsrael has long accused the United Nations of being biased against it and relations have plunged further since the start of the war in GazaIsraeli strike in Lebanon destroys Ottomanera market Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas surprise attack on Israel on Oct 7 2023 drawing retaliatory airstrikes The conflict escalated in September with Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollahs leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his senior commandersIsrael launched a ground operation earlier this month More than 1400 people have been killed in Lebanon since September according to Lebanons Health Ministry which does not say how many were Hezbollah fighters At least 58 people have been killed in rocket attacks on Israel nearly half of them soldiersIsraeli airstrikes overnight destroyed an Ottomanera market in Lebanons southern city of Nabatiyeh killing at least one person and wounding fourldquoOur livelihoods have all been leveledrdquo said Ahmad Fakih whose shop was destroyed Rescuers searched pancaked buildings as Israeli drones buzzed overheadThe Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets without elaborating and said it continued to target the militants on SundaySeparately the Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching for casualties in a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon when a second strike left four paramedics with concussions and damaged two ambulancesThe Red Cross said the operation had been coordinated with UN peacekeepers who informed the Israeli sideBodies rot in the streets in northern Gaza Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza almost daily The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areasIn northern Gaza Israeli air and ground forces have been attacking Jabaliya where the military says militants have regrouped Over the past year Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the builtup refugee camp which dates to the 1948 war surrounding Israels creation and other areasIsrael has ordered the full evacuation of northern Gaza including Gaza City An estimated 400000 people remain in the north after a mass evacuation ordered in the wars opening weeksPalestinians fear Israel intends to permanently depopulate the north to establish military bases or Jewish settlements thereThe United Nations says no food has entered northern Gaza since Oct 1The military confirmed that hospitals were included in evacuation orders but said it had not set a timetable and was working with local authorities to facilitate patient transfersFares Abu Hamza an official with the Gaza Health Ministrys emergency service said the bodies of a ldquolarge number of martyrsrdquo remain uncollected from the streets and under rubbleldquoWe are unable to reach themrdquo he said asserting that dogs are eating some remainsThe war began when Hamasled militants attacked a year ago killing some 1200 people mostly civilians and abducting around 250 Around 100 hostages are still held in Gaza a third believed to be deadIsraels bombardment and its ground invasion of Gaza have killed over 42000 Palestinians according to Gazas Health Ministry and left much of the territory in ruins The ministry doesnt distinguish between militants or civilians but says women and children make up over half the deathsIsrael says it has killed over 17000 fighters without providing evidenceThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever