BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) As diplomats rushed to mediate a cease-fire, officials reported that Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut on Saturday killed at least 11 people and injured scores more.
As rescuers searched through the debris for survivors, Lebanon’s Health Ministry warned that the death toll might increase. It stated that 63 individuals were injured and that the victims are being identified through DNA testing. In less than a week, there had been four strikes in the capital of Lebanon.
After U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein visited the area this week in an effort to mediate a cease-fire agreement to stop the more than 13 months of warfare between Israel and Hezbollah—which has escalated into full-fledged war in the last two months—the escalation follows.
The Lebanese Health Ministry reports that over 3,500 people have been dead and over 15,000 injured in Lebanon as a result of Israeli bombardment. Approximately 1.2 million people, or 25% of Lebanon’s population, have been displaced by the conflict. In northern Israel and during combat in Lebanon, rockets, drones, and missiles have killed over 90 Israeli soldiers and 50 civilians.
A structure is reduced to rubble by dawn airstrikes.
Rescue workers and people search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit central Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Image: Hassan Ammar/Associated Press
An eight-story building was destroyed and a crater was created on the ground by the 4 a.m. strikes. The state-run National News Agency reported that a drone strike in Tyre, a port city in the south, killed one person and injured another on Saturday.
The victims were fisherman, according to the agency. Observing the strike from a nearby hotel with a view of the beach, an Associated Press correspondent said he had previously saw the fisherman erecting nets and that both of them looked to be young teenagers.
The Israeli military did not remark on the casualties or offer a warning to the locals before the strikes in central Beirut. It issued a warning on Saturday to people living close to Hezbollah installations in sections of the southern suburbs of Beirut that the army would soon target them. People were advised to leave the area at least 500 meters (yards) away by the notice, which was placed on X.
The army claimed to have carried out intelligence-based attacks against Hezbollah sites in Dahiyeh, a neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut where Hezbollah is well-established, during the course of the previous day. It claimed to have struck a number of command headquarters and arsenals.
At least six people, including children, have died in Gaza.
On Saturday, strikes persisted in Gaza as well. According to AP reporters and Nasser Hospital workers, at least six individuals were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis, including two women and half of them were youngsters.
Local health experts said that more than 44,000 people have died this week in the 13-month conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. More than half of the deaths are women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count. Without any proof, the Israeli military claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and kidnapping another 250. This marked the start of the war. At least a third of the approximately 100 hostages who are still inside Gaza are thought to be dead. During a cease-fire last year, the majority of the others were freed.
Many people are wondering when or how the coastal region can ever be rebuilt after the Israeli offensive in Gaza severely damaged large swaths of it.Of the 2.3 million people living there, around 90% have been moved at least once, and hundreds of thousands are living in filthy tent camps with little access to basic amenities like food and water.
The number of households in central and southern Gaza suffering from severe hunger has sharply increased, the UN humanitarian agency warned. As bread and wheat disappeared from stores before fresh supplies arrived, local bakeries in Deir al-Balah closed for five days this week, and the cost of a bag of bread increased to over $13.
According to family members and witnesses who spoke to the AP, at least two ladies were shot dead on Saturday as they were in the city waiting in line for bread.
One woman was shot in the head, and another in the neck, according to Heba Ajam, who witnessed the incident while she was waiting at the bakery. Who shot them and why was unknown. Some bakeries in central and southern Gaza have had to close due to a lack of food and security.
This report was written by Associated Press writers Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem, Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip; Mohammad Jahjouh in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip; and Fadi Tawil in Tyre, Lebanon.
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