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Posted: 2024-10-20 12:42:32

Israel says it targeted a Hezbollah "command centre" in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Sunday, while in northern Gaza local officials say at least 87 people are dead or missing after Israeli strikes on multiple homes.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported two Beirut strikes, hitting a residential building in Haret Hreik near a mosque and a hospital.

The IDF said its fighter jets hit a "command centre of Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters" and underground weapons facility in Beirut, and that it also killed three Hezbollah militants in other strikes.

It said those killed included Alhaj Abbas Salameh, a senior figure in the group's southern command, Radja Abbas Awache, a communications expert, and Ahmad Ali Hussein, who it said was responsible for strategic weapons development.

It was not clear if the three were killed in the attack on the headquarters or in separate actions.

Hezbollah made no immediate comment.

NNA later reported Israeli strikes had targeted dozens of locations in southern Lebanon, including the city of Nabatiyeh, for the third time this week.

It reported 14 strikes within 15 minutes on the Lebanese border village of Khiam.

Three Lebanese soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on an army vehicle in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese military said in a statement on Sunday.

The troops were killed on a road connecting the border village of Ain Ebel to the nearby town of Hanin, the army said.

The latest deaths bring the total number of Lebanese troop casualties to eight killed since Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon last month.

The Israeli military said it "struck and eliminated over 65 Hezbollah terrorists … and struck dozens of Hezbollah terror targets" in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it launched rockets on Sunday at an Israeli army base east of the northern Israeli town of Safed.

A large plume of grey smoke over a hillside, with buildings dotted between trees.

Israeli strikes continued in southern Lebanon on Sunday. (Reuters: Karamallah Daher)

Hezbollah fighters fired "a big rocket salvo" at an Israeli army base east of Safed, the group said, adding the attack was "in defence of Lebanon" and "in response to the Israeli enemy's attacks on villages and homes".

It also said it launched rocket salvos at Israeli troops in two villages inside Lebanese territory — the southern border villages of Markaba and Asaisseh.

Since October 2023, more than 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon due to the fighting, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

The Lebanese government estimates 1.2 million people have been displaced.

According to Israeli authorities, 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights in the same period.

Two children standing in a pile of rubble, with damaged buildings in the background.

At least 40 people were injured in Sunday's strikes on Beit Lahia, Gaza's health ministry says. (AFP: Islam Ahmed)

Israeli strikes on multiple homes in the northern Gaza Strip overnight and into Sunday left at least 87 people dead or missing, the territory's health ministry said. It also reported more than 40 people were injured in the town on Sunday.

Gaza's civil defence agency said a single Israeli air strike on a residential area killed at least 73 Palestinians in Beit Lahia in the territory's north. 

"Our civil defence crews recovered 73 martyrs and a large number of wounded as a result of the Israeli air force targeting a residential area … in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza," said civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal.

Gaza's health ministry said rescue operations were being hindered by communications problems and the ongoing IDF operation in the area.

"Victims are still under the rubble and on the road and ambulance teams and civil emergency can't reach them," the ministry said in a statement.

UN Special Coordinator Tor Wennesland condemned the Beit Lahia strikes, and he called for an end to attacks on civilians, urging that displaced Palestinians be protected.

The Israeli military said it was investigating reports of the incident but said the numbers issued by Palestinian authorities were exaggerated. 

It said the figures did not align with its own information, the precise munitions used or the accuracy of the strike, which it said was directed at a Hamas target.

The Israeli military said it continued to operate in northern, central and southern parts of Gaza.

"The troops eliminated dozens of terrorists during close-quarter encounters on the ground and aerial strikes" across Gaza, it said.

A crowd gathers outside damaged buildings, with one in the foreground reduced to rubble.

A medic in Gaza says an Israeli strike flattened a multi-story building and at least four houses. (AFP: Islam Ahmed)

Among the dead were two parents and their four children, and a woman, her son and her daughter-in-law and their four children, according to medic Raheem Kheder. 

He said the strike flattened a multi-story building and at least four neighbouring houses.

Mounir al-Bursh, director general of the Health Ministry, said the flood of wounded from the strikes compounded "an already catastrophic situation for the health care system" in northern Gaza, in a post on X.

Israel launched a major air and ground assault on northern Gaza on October 6 this year.

Civil defence spokesperson Mr Bassal said "we have recovered more than 400 martyrs from the various targeted areas in the northern Gaza Strip," including Jabalia and its refugee camp, since Israel's operation began.

The current war in Gaza began after Hamas militants killed 1,200 Israelis in a terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures.

Israeli forces have since killed over 42,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry.

ABC/wires

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