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Israel says Hamas uses hospitals and civilians as human shields, and has made public videos and photos to support that claim. Hamas rejects the allegations and says it does not use the civilian population or facilities for military purposes.
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Israeli airstrikes across Gaza have killed at least 120 Palestinians in the past 48 hours, including seven members of a single family in Gaza City’s Zeitoun suburb, according to Palestinian medics. Strikes on a hospital on the enclave’s northern edge wounded medical staff and damaged critical equipment, they said.
Israeli forces have intensified their bombardment and incursion into northern Gaza, which Israel’s military claims is aimed at preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping and launching attacks. However, local residents express fears that the objective may be to create a permanent buffer zone, a claim Israel denies.
Meanwhile, Lebanon said an Israeli air strike in the heart of Beirut that brought down a residential building and jolted residents across the city killed at least 11 people on Saturday.
The attack in the capital was followed by others in the city’s southern suburbs after calls by the Israeli military to evacuate the area.
Israel stepped up its campaign against the militant group in late September, targeting its strongholds in the east and south as well as south Beirut, and later sending in ground troops after nearly a year of limited cross-border exchanges of fire.
Lebanon’s health ministry says at least 3,645 people have been killed since October 2023, when Hezbollah began trading fire with Israel in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas. Most of the deaths have been since September this year.
Gaza hospitals struggling
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
At least 44,176 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.
Months of attempts to negotiate a ceasefire have yielded scant progress and negotiations are now on hold, with mediator Qatar having suspended its efforts until the sides are prepared to make concessions.
Hamas wants a deal that ends the war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the war can end only once Hamas is eradicated.
With inputs from agencies.