An Israeli strike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday killed at least 19 people, Palestinian officials said, as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut in its widening war on Iran-allied militant groups across the region.
Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza nearly a year after its October 7 attack, and has opened a new front against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has been trading fire with Israel along the border since the war in Gaza began.
The widening conflict risks drawing in the United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel, as well as US-allied Arab countries that host American forces.
Iran-allied militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have also joined in with long-distance strikes on Israel.
A stabbing and shooting attack at the central bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba left one person dead and 10 others wounded, according to emergency workers.
Police did not identify the assailant but said they were treating it as a terror attack.
The attack came as Israel is on high alert ahead of memorial events marking the October 7 attack, which set in motion a year of violent escalation across the region.
Another four people were killed in a strike on a school-turned-shelter near the town.
The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead were all men, while another man was wounded.
The Israeli military announced a new air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, home to a densely populated refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It circulated photos and video footage showing a column of tanks heading towards the area.
Israeli forces encircled Jabaliya as warplanes struck militant sites inside, the military said. Over the course of the war, Israel has carried out several large operations there, only to see militants regroup.
Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in the heavily destroyed north after earlier Israeli warnings that sent around a million fleeing to the south.
“We are in a new phase of the war,” the military said in leaflets dropped over the area. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.”
Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said it has expanded the so-called humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, urging people to head there.
The zone includes sprawling tent camps where hundreds of thousands of people have already sought refuge, and Israel has carried out strikes inside it against what it says are fighters sheltering among civilians.
Palestinian residents reported heavy Israeli strikes across northern Gaza.
Many posted about the air strikes and mourned their relatives on social media. Imad Alarabid said in a Facebook post that an air strike on his home in Jabaliya killed a dozen of his family members, including his parents.
The latest strikes add to the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which is nearing 42,000, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, but many of the dead were women and children.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the October 7 attack and took another 250 hostage. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
In Beirut, air strikes lit up the skyline and loud explosions echoed across the southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh, throughout the night, as Israel struck what it said were Hezbollah militants sites.
The strikes reportedly targeted a building near a road leading to Lebanon’s only international airport and another formerly used by the Hezbollah-run broadcaster Al-Manar.
Hezbollah said it successfully targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel “with a large rocket salvo, hitting them accurately”. It was not possible to confirm the claim.
At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes in less than two weeks.
Israel says it is aiming to drive the militant group away from its border so that tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return to their homes.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Hamas’s October 7 attack, calling it a show of support for the Palestinians. Hezbollah and Israel’s military have traded fire almost daily.
Last week, Israel launched what it said was a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top command.
Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in ground clashes that Israel says have killed 440 Hezbollah fighters.
It is not possible to verify battlefield reports from either side.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters in Damascus that “we are trying to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and in Lebanon”.
The minister said Middle Eastern and other countries have put forward initiatives, without elaborating.
He spoke a day after the supreme leader of Iran praised its recent missile strikes on Israel and said it was ready to do it again if necessary.
Un cessez-le-feu immédiat est indispensable à Gaza comme au Liban.
Nous devons éviter l’escalade des tensions, protéger les populations civiles, libérer les otages et trouver des solutions politiques nécessaires à la sécurité d’Israël et de tous. pic.twitter.com/oS3BwDMNEm
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 5, 2024
On Saturday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and respond to these attacks, and it will do so.”
On Lebanon, he said: “We are not done yet.”
Meanwhile, French president Emmanuel Macron reiterated his call for a partial arms embargo on Israel — a demand that prompted an angry response from Mr Netanyahu.
In a written statement on Sunday, Mr Macron’s office said he favoured a halt to arms exports for use in Gaza because a ceasefire was needed “to stop the mounting violence, free the hostages, protect civilians and clear the way to the political solutions needed for the security of Israel and the whole Middle East”.
Mr Macron’s earlier similar remarks led Mr Netanyahu to release a video statement in which he called out the French president by name and referred to such calls as a “disgrace”.
Mr Macron’s office insisted that “France is Israel’s unfailing friend” and called Mr Netanyahu’s remarks “excessive.”
