The death toll from an Israeli air attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs has risen to 31 people, including three children and seven women, Lebanon’s health minister says.
The strike, which wrecked two buildings in the Lebanese capital’s Dahiya district during rush hour on Friday, also injured 68 people, Health Minister Firass Abiad told a news conference on Saturday.
The three children killed were aged four, six and 10, according to Abiad, who also said two people were in critical condition.
Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh told Al Jazeera Arabic that the bombing of a residential building constituted a “war crime” and that Israel was “dragging the region into a war”.
He said 23 people were still missing under the rubble.
Israel’s military said it carried out a “targeted strike” against senior members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces in the Beirut suburb.
Hezbollah confirmed that two of its top commanders, Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmad Mahmoud Wahabi, along with 12 other members, were killed in the attack. In July, an Israeli air strike killed Fuad Shukr, the group’s top military commander.
Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said Lebanon had entered a “decisive” phase after the attack on the residential suburb, telling a news conference on Saturday that everything must be done to prevent further violations of Lebanese territory and avoid further deterioration of the security situation.
The air attack on the densely populated area followed explosions of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, which was also blamed on Israel and killed at least 39 people while wounding close to 3,000 others.
Meanwhile, AFP, Gaza reports; Gaza's civil defence agency said Saturday an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Palestinian territory's largest city killed 17 people, while Israel's army said it was targeting Hamas militants.
"At least 17 martyrs, including eight children, and more than 30 injured, most of them children and women... following an Israeli rocket strike on Al-Zaytoun School C" in Gaza City, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said, noting that thousands of displaced people had sought shelter at the school.
Israel's military said in a statement the air force had "conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command and control centre in Gaza City".
It said the target was "embedded inside" the Al Falah School, which is adjacent to the Al-Zaytoun School buildings.
An AFP reporter at the scene said Al-Zaytoun School C had been hit.
The military did not provide a death toll but said "numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence".
It is the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza.
A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where many thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
The vast majority of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the ongoing war, which was triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 97 are still being held inside the Gaza Strip, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead.
At least 41,391 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
