Israel strikes south Lebanon, after Gaza rescuers say more than 50 killed

Updated 9.25pm

Lebanese state media said an Israeli air strike hit a building in southern Lebanon on Thursday after Israel's military warned residents to evacuate an area linked to Hezbollah militants.

The attack came on the same day as an Israeli strike in Gaza that reportedly killed 50 people.  

Israel has kept up its air strikes in neighbouring Lebanon despite a November truce aimed at halting more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah that included two months of full-blown war.

Without confirming the reported attack on the southern town of Toul, the Israeli military said its forces had carried out several strikes targeting Hezbollah sites and killed one militant.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said that "the Israeli enemy" struck a building in Toul, where the army had warned residents to evacuate the area around a building it said was used by Hezbollah militants.

The "urgent warning" was accompanied by a map showing a structure and the 500-metre (0.3-mile) radius around it marked in red.

"You are located near facilities belonging to the terrorist (group) Hezbollah," the statement said in Arabic, urging people "to evacuate these buildings immediately and move away from them".

There were no immediate reports of casualties in Toul.

In a separate statement, the military said it had "struck and eliminated a Hezbollah Radwan Force terrorist in the area of Rab El Thalathine", about 17 kilometres (10 miles) to the southeast.

The NNA reported a "martyr" in an air strike in the same area, without identifying them.

The Israeli military said its forces also "struck a Hezbollah military site containing rocket launchers and weapons" in the Bekaa Valley as well as "terrorist infrastructure sites and rocket launchers belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation... in southern Lebanon".

A military statement said that "the presence of weapons in the area and Hezbollah activities at the site constitute blatant violations of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon" under the November ceasefire agreement.

Israel will "continue to operate to remove any threat... and will prevent any attempt by Hezbollah to re-establish its terror capabilities", it said.

Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah fighters were to pull back north of the Litani River and dismantle military infrastructure south of it.

Israel was to withdraw all forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems "strategic".

The Lebanese army has deployed in the south and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.

The truce was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only people to bear arms in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

On Thursday Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned "the repeated Israeli aggressions against Lebanon at a critical moment just before municipal elections in the south", set for Saturday.

Despite a rise in Israeli strikes in recent days, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem called on supporters to go out to the polls and secure a "resounding" victory.

50 killed in Gaza, rescuers say       

Plumes of smoke rose Thursday over the northern Gaza Strip where Israel's military urged civilians to evacuate, as rescuers said Israeli strikes across the territory killed more than 50 people.

The latest evacuation warning for parts of Gaza City and neighbouring areas came hours after the United Nations said it had begun distributing around 90 truckloads of aid in Gaza -- the first such delivery since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2.

Under global pressure to lift the blockade and halt a newly expanded offensive, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was open to a "temporary ceasefire", but reaffirmed the military aimed to bring all of Gaza under its control.

In an Arabic-language statement on Thursday, the military said it was acting "with intense force" in 14 areas of the northern Gaza Strip, including parts of Gaza City and the Jabalia refugee camp.

A map posted alongside the warning showed a swath of territory marked in red, with the army accusing "terrorist organisations" of operating there and urging civilians to move south.

The army issued a similar evacuation call for northern Gaza late Wednesday in what it said was a response to rocket fire.

The vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million have been displaced at least once during the war.

After Israel announced it would allow in limited aid, the United Nations "collected around 90 truckloads of goods from the Kerem Shalom crossing and dispatched them into Gaza", said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres.

In Gaza, the Hamas government media office reported the arrival of 87 aid trucks, which it said were allocated to international and local organisations to meet "urgent humanitarian needs".

Netanyahu said it was necessary to "avoid a humanitarian crisis in order to preserve our freedom of operational action".

Palestinians have been scrambling for basic supplies, with Israel's blockade leading to critical food and medicine shortages.

'Hunger and disease' 

UN agencies have said that the amount of aid entering Gaza falls far short of what is required to ease the crisis.

Umm Talal al-Masri, 53, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza City, described the situation as "unbearable".

Hossam Abu Aida, 38, said: "I am tormented for my children".

"For them, I fear hunger and disease more than I do Israeli bombardment," he told AFP.

AFP footage showed bags of recently delivered flour at a bakery in the central city of Deir el-Balah, where workers and a host of machines began kneading, shaping, baking and packaging stack after stack of pita bread.

"Some aid is finally reaching Gazans in desperate need, but it's moving far too slowly," said Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme.

The amount is still a "tiny drop in the bucket" compared the scale of the crisis, she said.

Israel stepped up its offensive at the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza's Hamas rulers, whose October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.

Gaza's civil defence agency said there had been "52 martyrs and dozens injured as a result of air strikes carried out by the occupation" across the territory on Thursday.

AFP footage of northern Gaza showed numerous plumes of smoke rising from the area over the course of the afternoon.

There was no comment from the Israeli military on any strikes on Thursday.

'Complex reality' 

The intensified Israeli offensive has drawn criticism, with EU foreign ministers agreeing on Tuesday to review the bloc's cooperation accord with Israel.

Israel's foreign ministry has said the EU action "reflects a total misunderstanding of the complex reality Israel is facing".

Sweden said it would press the 27-nation European Union to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, while Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel.

Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Gaza's health ministry says at least 3,613 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,762, mostly civilians.

During the Hamas attack, militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israel military says are dead.

Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would be ready "if there is an option for a temporary ceasefire to free hostages", noting that at least 20 captives held by Hamas and its allies were still believed to be alive.

Alongside growing criticism of Israel's actions, there has been a global spike in anti-Semitic attacks throughout the war.

A gunman shouting "free Palestine" shot dead two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington on Wednesday.

Britain, France, Germany, the United States and other countries condemned the shooting.