Dozens killed in Damascus, Lebanon, Gaza as Israel ramps up strikes

A total of 20 people were killed and 21 others injured in Israeli airstrikes in and near the Syrian capital Damascus, as Israel launched attacks at targets on multiple fronts.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that strikes had hit buildings in two neighbourhoods in the Syrian capital Damascus, Mezzeh and Qudsaya.

The fatalities included at least three members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and three civilians, the Britain-based observatory reported.

It said Israel has carried out a total of 149 attacks in war-torn Syria this year.

Israel has been bombing targets in Syria to prevent Iran and its allied militias from expanding their military influence in the country. Israeli attacks on Syria have increased since the Gaza war began in October last year.

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza

Several people were also killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours, Palestinian media reported on Thursday.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA said that Israeli fire near Gaza City killed four Palestinians in the morning, with the Israeli military stating it was investigating the report.

Previously, the Israeli military reported that dozens of people had been killed on Wednesday in the areas of Beit Lahia and Jabalia, describing them as terrorists. Both locations, like Gaza City, are situated in the northern part of the embattled coastal strip.

"The troops found a large quantity of weapons and eliminated dozens of terrorists from the air and from the ground," the Israeli military said.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-controlled health authority said that 24 Palestinians were killed in the strip in the last 24 hours due to the fighting. The reports do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel hits southern suburbs of Beirut with airstrikes

More than 40 people were killed on Thursday in Israeli airstrikes in eastern and southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.

The Israeli military attacked the southern suburbs of Beirut, seen as a stronghold of Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, with at least four airstrikes on Thursday, according to a dpa reporter who witnessed them. Clouds of black smoke rose into the sky after the explosions. State news agency NNA said there were at least six strikes.

Twelves bodies were retrieved from rubble after an Israeli strike targeted a civil defence centre in Duis near the eastern town of Baalbek, Governor of Baalbek-Hermel Bachir Khodr said in an X post.

More than 20 personnel were inside the centre, he said.

The Health Ministry meanwhile said an Israeli strike on the al-Shaab neighbourhood in Baalbek left eight people, including five women, dead. Twenty-seven others were injured.

In further attacks on various locations in the east of the country, four people were killed, according to the ministry.

An Israeli strike on the southern town of Arbsalim killed six people, including four paramedics affiliated with the Hezbollah rescue service, the ministry added.

At least 13 other people were killed in other attacks in the south of the country. In one attack in Nabatieh alone, a further 30 people were reportedly injured, the ministry said.

After an evacuation order was issued by the Israeli military ahead of the strikes, some residents fired shots into the air to warn others of the impending attacks, leading many to flee.

"You are in the vicinity of Hezbollah facilities and interests," an Israeli military spokesman said in its warning to locals. Residents were told to move at least 500 metres away from buildings marked in red on an Israeli map issued by the military.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it attacked weapons depots and Hezbollah command centres from the air in the Dahiya neighbourhood.

Since September, Israel's military has massively expanded its attacks in Lebanon, where it says it is seeking to push back Hezbollah from its northern border so that residents can return to their homes. Fighter planes have bombed targets across the country and frequently in the suburbs south of Beirut.

A total of 3,386 people have been killed and 14,417 injured in Lebanon since the beginning of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah more than a year ago, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Thursday.

According to its information, these include 220 minors and almost 1,300 children, as well as 658 women.

The figures do not distinguish between Hezbollah fighters and civilians.

The militia, which launched the attack on Israel in solidarity with Gaza on October 8, has been firing on Israel in turn, and tens of thousands of people in northern Israel have fled their homes. More than 70 people have been killed, including soldiers, and over 640 injured in the north of the country by fire from Lebanon since the conflict began, most of them civilians, according to officials.

Two wanted militants killed in West Bank, Israel says

The Israeli military said on Thursday that its special forces had killed two wanted Palestinians "terrorist activities" in a raid Tulkarem in the West Bank.

Two men, one of them armed, escaped, prompting the Israeli forces to open fire, according to Israel. A third Palestinian was injured in the process.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA cited the Red Crescent as saying that a toddler had also been injured in the head by shrapnel from a bullet. The boy is the son of one of those killed, WAFA said.

The already tense situation in the West Bank has intensified significantly since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent Gaza war.

Since then, more than 740 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in Israeli military operations, armed confrontations and extremist attacks, according to the Health Ministry in Ramallah.