Lebanese authorities have reported that Israeli airstrikes in the country's northeast have raised the de💎ath toll to at least 45, targeting rural villages that had previously avoided significant damage in the ongoing conflict with Hezbollah.
In response to the escalating situation, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced t💫he deployment of additional bomber aircraft and Navy warships to the Middle East to strengthen U.S. military presence in the region.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles from🔯 Lebanon into Israel in solidarity with Hamas immediately after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza. This yearlong cross-border fighting boiled over on Oct. 1, when Israeli forces launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006.
Overall, U.N. agencies estimate that Israel's ground invasion and bombardment of Lebanon h🐓as displaced 1.4 mill♌ion people there. Residents of Israel's northern communities near Lebanon, roughly 60,000 people, have also been displaced for more than a year.
Middle East Crisis | Top Points
Lebanese authorities reported that Israeli airstrikes in the country's northeast have raise💧d the death toll to at least 45, with the governor of Baalbek confirming 41 deaths from attacks on nine p♒reviously spared rural villages, marking a significant increase from earlier reports.
In Lebanon's capital, Israeli planes struck the southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight for the first time in four days, targeting Hezbollah sites and cau𒀰sing panic, while the military warned residents to evacuate nine locations; however, there were no immediate reports of casualties amidst the ongoing fears of bombings.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austi💖n ordered several B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft, tanker aircraft and Navy destroyers to deploy to the Middl🎐e East to bolster US presence in the region.
I🎐srael launched waves of d💜eadly airstrikes across Lebanon and Gaza that killed at least 24 people in Lebanon's northeast on Friday, according to the state-run National News Agency.
Meanwhile in central Gaza, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 peopဣle killed in a barrage of Israeli attacks that began Thursday, hospital of🌠ficials said. Israel said it targeted Hamas infrastructure near the Nuseirat refugee camp.
A barrage of Israeli airstrikes on central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee cℱamp killed at least 21 Palestinians — including an 18-month-old and his 10-year-old sister — according to health officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Israeli strikes also hi𓃲t a motorcycle in Zuwaida and a house in Deir al-Balah, killing four more people, hospital officials said, bringing the overall death toll in Gaza to 25 on Friday.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday that a total of 55 🎐people had been kiꦿlled in the past 24 hours and that another 196 had been wounded.
