Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people in Gaza, Palestinian authorities said, and plumes of smoke were rising above the southern Beirut’s suburbs less than an hour after Israeli forces told residents to evacuate.
While fighting continues, international aid groups issued a report saying Israel has not met a Tuesday deadline set by the U.S. to allow more aid into the Gaza Strip.
But the Israeli military said hundreds of packages of food and water have been brought to an area in northern Gaza where it has been focusing operations.
Last month, the Biden administration told Israel to “surge” more food and supplies into Gaza or risk a cut in military aid.
On Tuesday, a group of eight international aid organizations said that of 19 measures of compliance with the U.S. demands, Israel failed to comply with 15 and only partially complied with four.
“Israel not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza,” the report said. “That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 85% of its attempts to coordinate aid convoys and humanitarian visits to northern Gaza were denied or impeded last month.
The office made 98 requests to Israeli authorities for authorization to go through the checkpoint along Wadi Gaza but only 15 made it, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday.
On Monday night, the Israeli security Cabinet approved more aid for Gaza, which will increase the number of trucks that enter each day, an official familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Air strikes in Gaza, Beirut
A late Monday strike killed at least 11 people in a cafeteria west of Khan Younis, according to officials at Nasser Hospital. A strike early Tuesday hit a house at a refugee camp in central Gaza, killing three people, according to al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties.
Early Tuesday, the Israeli army told residents in Beirut’s southern suburbs to leave immediately, warning that it would strike Hezbollah targets there.
“You are located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, against which the Israel Defense Forces will act in the near future,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X that included a map showing the buildings it would target in the Lebanese capital.
Less than an hour later, according to Agence France-Presse, two strikes hit the area and plumes of gray smoke were rising.
Witnesses told AFP gunfire could be heard in the area ahead of the strikes — warning shots by residents for people to leave following the evacuation call.
Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said on X on Tuesday that during a meeting with military officials, he reiterated that Israel will continue hitting Hezbollah with full force and that there will be no cease-fire.
Summit in Riyadh
On Monday, Arab and Muslim leaders met in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and demanded that Israel withdraw from occupied Palestinian territories as a precondition for regional peace.
The summit also denounced what it described as “shocking” Israeli crimes in Gaza.
The summit’s closing statement said “a just and comprehensive peace in the region… cannot be achieved without ending the Israeli occupation of all occupied Arab territories to the line of June 4, 1967,” referring to the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem as well as Gaza and the Golan Heights.
The international community should “launch a plan with specific steps and timing under international sponsorship” to make a sovereign Palestinian state a reality, the statement said.
However, the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains opposed to Palestinian statehood and Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, dismissed the prospect as not “realistic.”
The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, although about one-third of them are believed to be dead.
Israel’s counteroffensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities. The Israeli military says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas militants.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah have been designated as terrorist organizations by the United States.
Information from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse was used in this report.
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