Israeli strike kills 22, injures 30 at Gaza City school; 37 killed in Lebanon

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The New Arab's live coverage will resume on Sunday morning.

Israel's military said it was striking more Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Saturday evening, after claiming it had hit thousands of rocket launchers and other targets earlier in the day.

The military "is currently striking targets belonging to" Hezbollah in Lebanon, a statement said.

The Lebanese health ministry said one person was seriously injured after an Israeli attack on the Al-Qatrani area, while three others sustained minor injuries following attacks on the western Bekaa.

Israel pounded southern Lebanon Saturday, raising fears of all-out war a day after an Israeli strike on Beirut left senior Hezbollah commanders among the 37 people Lebanese officials said were killed.

With heavy equipment still working at the site of the southern Beirut strike beneath high-rise buildings, Lebanon's health ministry reported six additional dead, up from 31 earlier Saturday.

AFPTV footage showed mourners gathering in the Lebanese capital on Saturday for the funerals of three slain Hezbollah members.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati decried "horrific massacres" and said he had cancelled his trip to the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York, "in light of the developments linked to the Israeli aggression".

Israeli aircraft "struck thousands" of rocket launchers ready to fire from southern Lebanon, as well as "approximately 180" other, unspecified targets, a military statement said.

AFP correspondents reported intense Israeli strikes over a wide area of southern Lebanon including parts of the Nabatiyeh district and Jezzine further north.

Hezbollah said it targeted at least seven military positions in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights with rockets.

Israel's military said the militants had fired "about 90" rockets by late afternoon Saturday.

Hamas's armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said it had targeted an Israeli military bulldozer with an Al-Yassin 105 missile in Rafah in southern Gaza.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Saturday he had cancelled a trip to the United Nations General Assembly and decried "horrific massacres" after deadly attacks in Lebanon blamed on Israel.

Mikati said in a statement that he cancelled his trip "in light of the developments linked to the Israeli aggression on Lebanon", after this week saw an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs and attacks on Hezbollah devices blamed on Israel.

Israel's military said its air force struck on Saturday thousands of rocket launchers in southern Lebanon, as fears grew of all-out war with Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Israeli aircraft "struck thousands of launcher barrels that were ready for immediate use to fire toward Israeli territory" as well as "approximately 180" other, unspecified targets, a military statement said.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Saturday said he was worried about escalation between Israel and Lebanon but that the Israeli killing of a top Hezbollah leader brought justice to the group.

Sullivan, speaking with reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, said he still sees a path to a ceasefire in Gaza but that the US is "not at a point right now where we're prepared to put something on the table".

(Reuters)

The UN humanitarian office's branch in Palestine has said that in Gaza it has "no safe access" to respond to the "overwhelming needs".

"Movement from north to south is almost impossible, picking up supplies from entry points is dangerous, and the main roads are either destroyed, off-limits, or insecure," OCHA oPt said on social media platform X.

In #Gaza, we have no safe access to respond to the overwhelming needs.

Movement from north to south is almost impossible, picking up supplies from entry points is dangerous, and the main roads are either destroyed, off-limits, or insecure. #AccessDenied

Read more 👇

— OCHA oPt (Palestine) (@ochaopt) September 21, 2024

The number of people killed in an Israeli attack on a school in Gaza City has risen to 22.

The Gaza health ministry called the incident at Al-Zaytoun School C a "massacre" and also said 30 people had been injured.

It said most of the casualties were children and women.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Saturday that Israel is committing "shameless crimes" against children, not combatants.

Khamenei said Israel was not even hiding its different forms of "shameless crimes" in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria.

It is not combating "fighting men, but ordinary people", he told a group of envoys from Muslim countries in Tehran in remarks broadcast on state TV.

"Unable to hurt the real fighters in Palestine, they are venting their malicious anger on small children, on hospital patients, and on schools filled with young children."

Also on Saturday, in a show of strength, Iran unveiled its "Jihad" single-stage liquid-fuel ballistic missile with a high-explosive detachable warhead and a range of 1,000 kilometres, according to state TV.

The missiles were displayed, along with other military hardware, during a parade marking the anniversary of the start of the 1980–88 war with Iraq.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that it was carrying out new airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, without offering details.

The military said it "is currently striking targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in Lebanon".

It added that at least 16 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in a Friday strike in Beirut.

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.

"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 Mahmoud Bassal said, noting that thousands of displaced people had sought shelter at the school.

Israel's army claimed it was targeting Hamas militants.

The number of people killed in Israel's war on Gaza has risen to 41,391, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry.

Israel has carried out 12 "massacres against the families" in Gaza, with 119 killed and 209 injured people arriving at hospitals in the past 72 hours, the ministry said.

Israel's campaign against Gaza has injured 95,760 people since 7 October 2023, the ministry added.

At least 31 people were killed, including three children and seven women, in an Israeli strike on Beirut's suburbs on Friday, the Lebanese health minister told a news conference on Saturday.

(Reuters)

Iran's foreign ministry on Friday condemned the Israeli airstrike that hit Beirut.

"The brutal and vicious air strike of the Zionist regime on Beirut… is a gross violation of international law and regulations, as well as the violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security," foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement.

"There is no doubt that the Zionist regime seeks to intensify the tensions and broaden the geography of war and conflict in the region," he stated, adding that "such a vicious policy is a clear and maximum threat to international peace and security".

The health ministry in Lebanon said the number of civilians killed in the attack on the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh has exceeded 15, The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Hedge fund manager Steven Eisman, known for a big winning bet against the US housing market dramatised in the film The Big Short, was put on leave by his firm on Friday after he said on social media he was celebrating devastation in the Gaza Strip.

His firm, Neuberger Berman, said Eisman did not speak on its behalf and called his actions "objectionable".

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's nearly year-old war in the enclave, the Gaza health ministry has said.

An X user posted that the world was silent about war-ravaged Gaza. Eisman responded: "You must be kidding. We are not silent. We are celebrating." His account has since been deleted.

Eisman could not immediately be contacted. In comments cited by media reports, he apologised for his remarks and said he had intended to refer to Israel's attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

A Neuberger Berman spokesperson distanced the firm from Eisman's comments.

"Even though Mr. Eisman has acknowledged that he mistook the content of the post he responded to, his actions on social media were irresponsible and objectionable," the company spokesperson added. Eisman joined the firm in 2014.

Eisman profited from the 2007 crisis in the US subprime mortgage market, which turned into a global financial crisis, by shorting the stocks of American banks. The episode was the basis for the 2015 film The Big Short.

(Reuters)

US officials have not given up hope of landing a Gaza ceasefire and captive deal but are increasingly pessimistic that a breakthrough can come anytime soon, according to sources and officials familiar with the matter.

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported that senior US officials were now privately acknowledging that an agreement may not be within reach before President Joe Biden's term ends in January.

While noting the dim prospects, several US officials said this was not an administration-wide assessment.

"I do not rule it out," said one of the US officials when asked whether a deal can be struck before the end of Biden's term, adding that the administration continues to work on bridging the remaining gaps.

"Doesn't mean it will get done," the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The odds of a quick resolution appeared smaller after an unprecedented attack on Hezbollah this week in which pagers and radios used by its members exploded, killing 37 people and wounding thousands.

On Friday, Israel killed a top commander with the Iran-aligned Lebanon-based armed group Hezbollah in an airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs.

"We don't appear to be particularly close at the moment," a senior administration official said.

(Reuters)