GAZA, Nov 01 (Reuters/AFP): Sixty Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, most of them children and women, in overnight Israeli bombardment of the the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Friday.
The attacks occurred in the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda, it said.
The Israeli military said its troops had identified and eliminated "several armed terrorists" in central Gaza and had eliminated "dozens of terrorists" in targeted raids in northern Gaza's Jabalia area.
The Gaza war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced most of the enclave to rubble, Palestinian authorities say.
At least 46 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, mostly in the north where one attack hit a hospital, torching medical supplies and disrupting operations, the enclave's health officials said.
Israel's military has accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of using Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya for military purposes and said "dozens of terrorists" have been hiding there. Health officials and Hamas deny the assertion.
Israel pounds Lebanon, Gaza after US truce push
Israel bombarded the Gaza Strip and Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, a day after US envoys made a renewed but so far fruitless diplomatic push to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Iran-backed groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Overnight, 60 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured in Israeli strikes on the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The Israeli military said its troops had killed what it called armed terrorists in central Gaza and northern Gaza's Jabalia area.
Israel also pummelled Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday morning with at least 10 strikes, Reuters journalists said. It was the first bombardment on the area - once a densely-packed district and Hezbollah stronghold - in nearly a week.
Gaza polio vaccinations to
resume Saturday: WHO
The World Health Organization said on Friday that a second round of child polio vaccinations in northern Gaza would begin on Saturday, after Israeli bombing in the area halted the drive.
"Polio vaccination in northern Gaza is ready to resume tomorrow," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, adding: "We are assured of the necessary humanitarian pause in Gaza City to conduct the campaign."
Lebanon accuses Israel
of rejecting truce
after Beirut strikes
Lebanon's prime minister accused Israel of rejecting a ceasefire after the Israeli military bombed the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut for the first time this week on Friday.
At least 10 strikes hit the southern suburbs before dawn after the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings, with AFPTV footage showing explosions and clouds of smoke.
"The raids left massive destruction in the targeted areas, as dozens of buildings were levelled to the ground, in addition to the outbreak of fires," Lebanon's National News Agency reported, adding that strikes also targeted Aley, southeast of the capital, and Bint Jbeil in the country's south.
The Israeli military said it continued operations against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and its Palestinian ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip.