Hezbollah launches rockets into Israel after Israeli strike kills 7 in Lebanon
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Around 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Wednesday morning, according to the Israeli military. Hezbollah took responsibility for the launches and said they were in response to an Israeli airstrike on a paramedic center linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group in south Lebanon that killed seven of its members overnight.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group began launching rockets toward Israel one day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7. There has been near-daily violence, mostly confined to the area along the Lebanon-Israel border, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his government will not accept Hamas’ “delusional” conditions for a cease-fire in Gaza. The militant group rejected the latest truce proposal because it says Israel is ignoring the group’s core demands: an end to the war and Israel’s full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israel seeks to destroy Hamas and to recover all of the approximately 100 Israeli hostages still in Gaza, as well as the remains of some 30 others.
Some 1,200 people were killed in Israel and another 250 people abducted when militants launched a surprise attack out of Gaza on Oct. 7, triggering the war.
More than 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 74,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally. The ministry says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Rafah airstrike kills at least 4, more feared in rubble
Palestinian health officials say an airstrike on an apartment building in the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah has killed at least four people.
An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies arrive at a local hospital. Relatives say another 10 people were still buried under the rubble.
Palestinians could be seen digging through the remains of a pancaked building early Wednesday. Mohammed Dheir, a neighbor, says there were “limbs all over the ground.”
Israel has threatened to expand its ground operation to Rafah, where some 1.4 million people — over half of Gaza’s population — have sought refuge. The military has regularly carried out airstrikes on Rafah since the start of the war.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border on Oct. 7 and attacked several Israeli communities and army bases, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They abducted another 250 and dragged them back to Gaza.
In response, Israel launched one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Wednesday that at least 32,490 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians but says women and children make up around two-third of those killed.
The Israeli military says it has killed over 13,000 fighters. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, residential areas, but the military rarely comments on individual strikes.
18 people have died trying to recover airdropped aid, Gaza officials say
Palestinian officials say at least six people drowned earlier this week while trying to recover airdropped food aid in northern Gaza.
Mahmoud Bassel, a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense rescue service, says a large group of men swam out into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday to try to recover aid parcels. Six bodies were later recovered and transferred to a nearby hospital.
He said Wednesday that a total of 18 people have died while trying to recover airdropped aid in scenes of chaos and desperation.
“Sometimes it falls into the sea, sometimes on civilians, sometimes on houses, sometimes on Israeli territory beyond the border fence,” he said.
The Hamas-run government media office has also reported 18 deaths related to the aid drops. The United States and other nations have carried out several airdrops in recent weeks to try and get food to Palestinians in northern Gaza, where experts say famine is imminent.
Aid groups say the airdrops are no substitute for bringing aid in overland and have called on Israel to streamline its inspection procedures and open more crossings.
Israel’s offensive, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, has caused widespread devastation in northern Gaza and Israeli forces have largely sealed the north off since October. Aid groups say requests to deliver aid to the north are often denied by the military or are too dangerous because of the breakdown in security across Gaza.
Israeli military kills 3 Palestinians in overnight raid
The Israeli military says its forces killed three Palestinian militants during an overnight raid in the West Bank.
The military said it opened fire on militants who hurled explosive devices, killing one of them. It said an airstrike killed two other militants, and that its forces destroyed a vehicle containing explosive devices after arresting two people who were inside it.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said two of those killed were 19 years old. It says another four Palestinians were wounded in the raid, which occurred overnight into Wednesday. It did not say whether any of those killed or wounded were militants or civilians.
Violence across the West Bank has spiked since the war in Gaza broke out on Oct. 7, when Palestinian militants launched an incursion on southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping around 250 others.
The raid was carried out in the Jenin refugee camp, which has seen regular clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in recent years. The dense, urban camp was built to house Palestinian refugees from what is now Israel who fled or were driven out during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has little control over Jenin.
At least 450 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli fire since the conflict broke out, according to Palestinian health officials.