Daily Times

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 10 Palestinians in Gaza, with seven dead in an attack on two houses in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahiya and three fatalities in a strike on a house in Nuseirat camp in the enclave’s centre, medics told Reuters.

Several people were wounded in both attacks, they said, adding that Israeli forces had sent tanks into the northeast of Nuseirat camp.

Palestinians said the new aerial and ground offensives and forced evacuations were “ethnic cleansing” aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp of their population to create buffer zones.

Israel denies this, saying it is fighting Hamas, who launch attacks from there.

The health ministry in Gaza has said that Israeli forces are bombarding the last partially functioning hospital in north Gaza, the area of intense Israeli military operations for the past month, AFP reports.

“At this moment, occupation forces are continuing to violently bombard and destroy Kamal Adwan Hospital, targeting all parts of the hospital,” the ministry said of the hospital in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahia.

The Israeli military when contacted said it was checking the reports.

Israeli air strikes have left significant destruction across the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek, hitting historic landmarks, government structures, and civilian areas, Al Jazeera reports.

In the nearby town of Douris, a civilian house was also targeted, leading to the complete destruction of the structure, the head of the Baalbek Municipalities Union, Shafiq Qassem Shehadeh, told Reuters.

There was also severe damage caused to the surrounding area, including the municipal building and Christian cemeteries, he added, noting that the residential target had not been on Israel’s list of forced evacuations.

Gaza’s Civil Defense says it has been forced to stop operating across the entire northern part of the Gaza Strip due to ongoing Israeli attacks, as thousands of citizens remain trapped without humanitarian and medical care, Al Jazeera reports.

It added that Israeli forces attacked Civil Defense crews operating in the north, seized their vehicles, forcibly displaced most of their members to the southern part of the Strip and abducted seven of them.

Top UN officials issued a joint statement last week warning that “the entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.”