Deadly strikes on Gaza, Lebanon as Israel faces aid deadline

Israeli air strikes killed dozens of people in Lebanon and Gaza Sunday, rescuers and authorities said, ahead of a US deadline for improved aid delivery to the Palestinian territory.

Another strike south of the Syrian capital Damascus killed nine people including a Hezbollah commander, a war monitor said.

Rescuers in the Gaza Strip said 13 children were among 30 people killed by Israeli strikes in the territory's north.

The first hit a house in Jabalia, killing at least 25 people including 13 children and injuring more than 30, Gaza's civil defence agency said.

At around 6:00 am, "there was a very huge explosion" at the Alloush family home, said relative Abdullah al-Najjar.

"When we arrived here, all the bodies were torn apart."

Vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in already ravaged north Gaza, Israel on October 6 began a major air and ground assault.

The United Nations has described the area as "under siege", and Washington set a deadline of this coming week for Israel to get more aid in or face possible cuts to military assistance.

After the Jabalia strike, Israel's military said it hit "infrastructure" in which militants were operating and "posed a threat" to troops.

Another strike on Gaza City's Sabra neighbourhood killed five people, the civil defence agency said.

- Israel claims pager blasts -

In Lebanon, the health ministry said an Israeli strike on Almat village north of Beirut killed 23 people including seven children.

"Under the rubble, there are only children, elderly men and women," Hezbollah lawmaker Raed Berro said, denying Israeli allegations that Hezbollah and weapons were embedded among civilians.

The ministry reported at least another 15 dead in strikes in the east as well as three Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers killed in the south, both areas where the Iran-backed group has a strong presence.

War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that an Israeli strike on an apartment belonging to Hezbollah south of Damascus killed nine people, including a Hezbollah commander.

Iran's foreign ministry condemned the strike, calling for "an arms embargo" on Israel and its "expulsion from the United Nations".

Since late September Israel has been engaged in a two-front war after turning its focus north towards Lebanon.

Israel admitted for the first time Sunday it was behind a wave of deadly attacks on Hezbollah communications devices in September.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "greenlighted the pager operation in Lebanon" in which hundreds of devices exploded, killing nearly 40 people and wounding around 3,000, his spokesman said.

The operation preceded Israel's ongoing air and ground campaign in Lebanon, after almost a year of tit-for-tat exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, which said it was acting in support of Hamas.

The war in Gaza erupted with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 43,603 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.

On Sunday, Israel's military said it intercepted two drones approaching from the east. Pro-Iran groups in Iraq have previously said they launched attack drones at Israel.

- Aid surge 'must happen' -

Israel's main military backer the United States on October 15 warned that it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in assistance unless Israel improves aid delivery to the Gaza Strip within 30 days -- a deadline that expires on Wednesday.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at the time top US officials made "clear" to Israel's government that changes need to be made "to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today".

The demand came before Tuesday's vote for President-elect Donald Trump, who has suggested he would give freer rein to Israel.

On Saturday, a UN-backed assessment warned that famine is imminent in northern Gaza.

Fewer aid shipments were allowed into Gaza than at any time since October 2023, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report.

The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of "an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation".

Israel's military questioned the report's credibility, denouncing "partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests".

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that "humanitarian access must be granted at all times and must never become a means of warfare".

She said that "time and again" promises of aid were not kept, and that an Israeli pledge to flood Gaza with aid "must happen, without excuses".

The heads of UN agencies in early November described north Gaza as "under siege" and denied "basic aid and life-saving supplies".

Arab and Muslim leaders are gathering in Saudi Arabia for a summit Monday that will focus on the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

On Saturday, Gaza mediator Qatar said it had suspended its role in trying to broker a deal.

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