‘At least 42 killed’ in Gaza strikes, as Israeli man shot dead in West Bank
At least 42 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, the director of the Hamas-run government media office has said.
An Israeli strike on houses in Al Shati refugee camp in Gaza City killed 24 people, Ismail Al Thawabta told Reuters.
Another 18 Palestinians were killed in a strike on houses in the city’s Al Tuffah neighbourhood, he added.
Israeli strikes took place in Gaza City in Gaza and the Bakaa Valley in Lebanon, while an Israeli man was killed in Qalqilya in the West Bank
The Israeli military confirmed in a statement on Saturday that IDF fighter jets “struck two Hamas military infrastructure sites in the area of Gaza City”, while saying it would release more details later.
Hamas did not comment on whether its military infrastructure had been hit, as per the Israeli claim.
Hamas said the attacks targeted the civilian population. The group vowed in a statement: “The occupation and its Nazi leaders will pay the price for their violations against our people.”
Footage showed dozens of Palestinians rushing to search for victims amid the destroyed houses in the Shati refugee camp.
Palestinians search for casualties at Al Shati refugee camp. Pics: Reuters
It comes after the Hamas-run health ministry said at least 25 Palestinians were killed in Mawasi in western Rafah and 50 wounded on Friday.
Palestinians said a tank shell hit a tent housing displaced families.
The Israeli military said: “An initial inquiry conducted suggests that there is no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] in the Humanitarian Area in Al Mawasi.”
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‘Israeli tank shells hit tent camp in Rafah’
Strike in Lebanon and shooting in West Bank
A separate Israeli strike in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley on Saturday killed a member of the military wing of the Islamic Group, a Sunni Muslim faction closely allied with Hamas, according to the group.
It was the seventh member killed by Israeli strikes since the war began.
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Meanwhile, an Israeli man was shot dead in a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank, according to Israel’s army.
The army said the man was pronounced dead in the town of Qalqilya and Israeli troops were currently occupying the area.
Israeli forces shot dead two militants in the same West Bank town on Friday.
Israeli nationals are prohibited from entering the town and other areas of the West Bank that fall under the authority of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
There have been flare-ups of violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last October.
Since then at least 549 Palestinians in the territory have been killed by Israeli fire, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
In the same period of time, Palestinians in the West Bank have killed at least nine Israelis, including five soldiers, according to UN data.
Hamas says more than 37,500 Palestinians killed in Gaza
The war between Israel and Hamas erupted when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage.
Israel bombed and invaded Gaza in response, killing more than 37,500 people there, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
After more than eight months of war, Israel’s advance is focused on the last two areas its forces are yet to seize: Rafah on Gaza’s southern edge and the area surrounding Deir Al Balah in the centre of the territory.
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
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Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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