Israel orders more evacuations from Lebanese villages, food runs out in Gaza

Israel ordered more evacuations and targeted new locations in northern Lebanon on Saturday as a third United Nations peacekeeper was wounded in the escalating conflict.

At least five people were killed and 15 wounded in Israeli strikes across three different areas in Lebanon, a security source and a civil defence source told Reuters. One of the targets was in the town of Deir Billa in northern Lebanon, which had not been previously struck.

Israel’s military ordered residents in 23 southern Lebanese villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows from the western Bekaa Valley into the Mediterranean.

The order, communicated via a military statement, listed villages in southern Lebanon that have been recent targets, many of which are already almost empty.

The Israeli military said evacuations were necessary for the safety of residents due to increased Hezbollah activities, claiming the group was using sites to conceal weapons and launch attacks on Israel. Hezbollah denies concealing weapons among civilians.

Another member of UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, was struck by gunfire on Friday, it said on Saturday, adding that the man had undergone surgery to remove a bullet.

The statement said UNIFIL’s position in the town of Ramyah sustained significant damage due to explosions, but it did not specify who was responsible for either attack.

Two UN peacekeepers were wounded by an Israeli strike near their watchtower in south Lebanon on Friday.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which erupted a year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets at northern Israel in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war, has escalated over the past month.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in the Zarout area south of Beirut and the health ministry said four were killed. The ministry said another airstrike on the village of Maisra, north-east of Beirut, killed five.

Hezbollah continued to fire into Israel.

Intensified Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut have forced approximately 1.2 million people from their homes since September 23, according to the Lebanese government.

As of Friday, the death toll had reached 2255 since the beginning of hostilities, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Saturday that more Lebanese had now been displaced than during the last major war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Food runs out in Gaza

Meanwhile, Palestinians in northern Gaza described heavy Israeli bombardment as airstrikes killed at least 22 people there.

Residents reported being trapped in their homes and shelters with dwindling supplies as bodies piled up in the streets. The bombing was hampering the emergency response, they said.

Those who rushed to the scene of the latest airstrikes in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya found a hole 20 metres deep where a home once stood. At least 20 bodies had been recovered by Saturday morning, while others remained trapped under the rubble, emergency service officials said.

Elsewhere in Jabaliya, a strike on a home killed two brothers and wounded a woman and newborn baby, the officials said. Another strike in the afternoon killed at least four people, said Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the emergency service.

Israel’s military did not respond to request for comment on the strikes. Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee told people in parts of Jabaliya and Gaza City to evacuate south to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone as Israel planned to use great force “and will continue to do so for a long time.”

Israel’s military renewed its offensive in northern Gaza almost a week ago while escalating its air and ground campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel has repeatedly returned to parts of Gaza, claiming Hamas and other militants were regrouping. The war there has displaced around 90 per cent of the population of 2.3 million.

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

He said Israeli planes and drones had struck neighbouring houses in the past week, killing 15 people, including four women and five children as young as 3.

Meanwhile, non-government agencies were sending out hunger warnings. The UN World Food Program said no food aid had entered the north since October 1. An estimated 400,000 people remain there.

The UN’s independent investigator on the right to food last month accused Israel of carrying out a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians, which Israel denied.

Israel’s Gaza offensive started last year after Hamas’ October 7 attack, when militants stormed into Israel, killing 1200 people and abducting around 250 others. Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run health authorities.