Israel kills 21 in first strike on northern Lebanon town, expanding war against Hizbullah

Israel killed 21 people on Monday in an air strike on a Christian-majority village in northern Lebanon, the Lebanese Red Cross said, as Israeli forces widened their attacks on the country.
The strike on Aitou, which hit a house, is the first time the district in the country’s northern mountains has been targeted since Israel launched its offensive against the Shia militant group Hizbullah.
The house that had been rented to displaced families, the town’s mayor Joseph Trad said. A further eight people were injured in the incident, the Lebanese health ministry said.
The main focus of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon had been in the Bekaa Valley in the east, the suburbs of Beirut, and in the south, where incidents involving Israeli troops and UN peacekeepers have created tension.
The UN Security Council on Monday expressed strong concern after several peacekeeping positions in southern Lebanon came under fire amid clashes between the Israeli military and Hizbullah.
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, visiting a military base in central Israel where four soldiers were killed on Sunday by a Hizbullah drone strike, said Israel would continue to attack the Iran-backed movement “without mercy, everywhere in Lebanon – including Beirut”.
The strike in Aitou as one of multiple air attacks across Lebanon on Monday. Israel also said it killed Muhammad Kamel Naim, commander of the anti-tank missile unit of Hizbullah’s elite Radwan Force, in a strike in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon.
They came a day after a Hizbullah drone attack on a military base near Binyamina, northern Israel, killed four Israeli soldiers and wounded about 60.
That was the deadliest attack by the Iran-backed group inside Israel since the Israel Defense Forces ramped up their offensive against Hizbullah three weeks ago, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and invading Lebanon’s south. Seven soldiers were seriously injured in the attack by the Lebanese militants on Sunday evening, according to the IDF.
As Israel fights on multiple fronts, an air strike on a school in the northern Gaza town of Nuseirat killed 20 people, Unrwa, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, said. Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini said the attack on Sunday prevented the body from carrying out polio vaccinations in the area, though it has resumed the programme in central Gaza.
In another incident, an Israeli air strike near a hospital compound in the centre of Gaza killed at least four people and injured 40 others, health authorities reported on Monday.
The IDF confirmed it had struck Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ hospital in Deir al-Balah, saying the “former” hospital was now being used by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, as a “command and control centre”.
Israel has launched an offensive on hospitals across the strip, claiming Hamas is using them for military purposes. The Israeli strikes have pushed Gaza’s health system towards collapse. Hamas denies the claims.
Dr Iyad al-Jabry, medical director at Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ hospital, said that at the time of the attack the hospital was functioning and caring for up to 700 patients. The strike hit temporary shelters for displaced Palestinians within the compound, igniting a large fire and destroying at least 37 tents, Mr Jabry said.
Videos from the scene uploaded to Palestinian social media showed fire enveloping tents and people who had reportedly taken shelter in the hospital grounds.
There were no armed militants in the hospital, which treated dozens of wounded Palestinians after the strike, according to Jabry. “This was not the first strike on the hospital. We’ve grown used to it,” he said. “We’re still working, we will not leave.”
More than a year of fighting in Gaza has left more than 41,000 Palestinians dead, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
Hizbullah said the drone attack on the military base near Binyamina, 40km south of Haifa, was to respond to Israel’s escalating attacks on Lebanon and to show off its capabilities. It said it targeted the IDF’s Golani brigade, launching dozens of projectiles alongside a squadron of attack drones to overwhelm Israel’s air defences.
One drone evaded Israeli air defences and struck a cafe on an army training base. Israeli media reported that many of the victims were Golani brigade cadets. Witnesses said no warning sirens were activated before the strikes. The IDF said it was still investigating the incident.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and expressed his condolences for the IDF soldiers’ deaths, the Pentagon said.
Earlier, the US said it was sending an advanced antimissile system to Israel, a move that will boost Israel’s defences as Mr Netanyahu’s government plans retaliatory strikes against Iran. The ground-based Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence system is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles.
Israel’s conflict with Hizbullah has intensified in recent weeks, but its air campaign has been largely concentrated on areas under Hizbullah control, unlike the Christian-majority village of Aitou in northern Lebanon.
The strike targeted a house that had been rented to displaced families, a local official said. Israel has not commented on the strike and it was not yet clear who or what the target was.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed more than 2,300 people over the past year and forced at least 1.2 million from their homes, mostly in the past two weeks, according to Lebanese authorities. They have also caused widespread destruction in southern Lebanon. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024/Reuters