Heavy Israeli bombardment of northern Gaza

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BEIRUT – Palestinians in northern Gaza described heavy Israeli bombing Saturday in the hours after airstrikes that killed at least 22 people, as Israel continued to tell residents of the country and southern Lebanon to get out of the way of its offensives against militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

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The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon said its headquarters in Naqoura was hit again and a peacekeeper was hit by gunfire late Friday and was in stable condition. It was unclear who shot. The shooting occurred a day after the Israeli military shelled its headquarters for the second day in a row. Israel, which has warned peacekeepers to leave their positions, did not immediately respond to questions.

Warnings of famine resurfaced as residents of northern Gaza said they had not received aid since the beginning of the month. The UN World Food Program said no food aid had arrived in the north since October 1. It is estimated that there are about 400,000 people there.

The Israeli army resumed its offensive in the northern Gaza Strip almost a week ago, while intensifying its air and ground campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanon's state-owned National News Agency reported that an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in the coastal zone of Zarout on the outskirts of Barja south of Beirut, with the Health Ministry saying four people were killed. Another airstrike on the village of Maisra, northeast of Beirut, killed five people, the ministry said.

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Hezbollah continued to shell Israel.

“We will continue to support the Lebanese people in these difficult circumstances, as well as the Palestinian people,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on Saturday during a visit to the site of the Israeli airstrike in Beirut.

The people of Gaza are trapped

Residents of northern Gaza told the Associated Press that many were trapped in their homes and shelters because of dwindling supplies, while they saw unclaimed bodies on the streets as bombing hampered rescue efforts.

Those who rushed to the scene of the latest deadly airstrikes on the city's Jabaliya refugee camp found a hole 20 meters (65 feet) deep where a house once stood.

Emergency services reported that at least 20 bodies were found on Saturday morning, others were probably trapped under the rubble. Elsewhere in Jabaliya, two brothers were killed and a woman and a newborn were injured in an attack on a house, officials said.

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Another afternoon strike hit a Jabaliya home, killing at least four people, including a woman, said Fares Abu Hamza, an emergency services official.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the attacks. Military spokesman Avichay Adraee told residents in parts of Jabaliya and Gaza City to evacuate south to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone because Israel plans to use major force “and will do so for a long time.”

Israel has repeatedly returned to parts of Gaza as Hamas and other militants regroup. The war has devastated large swaths of Gaza and displaced approximately 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

“It's like the first days of the war,” said Jabaliya resident Ahmed Abu Goneim. “The occupation is doing everything to uproot us. But we won't leave.”

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The 24-year-old said that Israeli warplanes and drones struck many neighboring homes last week. He counted that 15 relatives and neighbors died in neighboring houses, including four women and five children aged 3. He said there were bodies lying in the streets and “no one was able to recover them because of the bombings.”

Hamza Sharif, who is staying with his family in a shelter-turned-school in Jabaliya, described “constant bombings day and night.”

He added that the shelter had not received help since the beginning of the month. “Families depend on what they have collected, but they will soon run out of supplies,” he said.

The food is running out

The World Food Program said it was unclear how long the limited supplies of food previously distributed in the northern Gaza Strip would last.

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Last month, the UN's independent investigator on the right to food accused Israel of waging a “hunger campaign” against Palestinians, which Israel denied.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza began after the Hamas attack on October 7, when militants entered Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others.

More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities, which do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that the bodies of 49 people killed were delivered to hospitals in the last 24 hours.

— Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Jack Jeffery in Jerusalem and Sam Metz in Rabat, Morocco contributed to this report.

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