Airstrikes in Gaza leave 16 dead, Palestinian officials say

By VOA News September 16, 2024

Israeli airstrikes killed 16 people in the Gaza Strip early Monday, according to Palestinian officials, and took out 20 Hezbollah launchers and military infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The Gaza airstrikes hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 10 people and wounding 13 others. Six other people were killed in a strike on a Gaza City home, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government told the Associated Press.

The dead included four women and two children.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military reported that after sirens sounded in the area of the Upper Galilee, two suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory and falling in the area of the northern Golan Heights.

The Israeli air force struck "approximately 20 Hezbollah launchers and military infrastructure sites which posed an immediate threat to Israeli civilians" in the area of Jarmaq in southern Lebanon.

Earlier strikes from Lebanon

On Sunday morning, the Israeli military said about 40 projectiles were fired from Lebanon toward Israel's Upper Galilee region and the annexed Golan Heights.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the current situation along the Israeli-Lebanon border, where tens of thousands of people have been displaced, was not sustainable.

"The existing situation will not continue. We will do everything necessary to return our residents safely to their homes," he said.

Also Sunday, Israeli police shot and killed a man who stabbed a border officer at a gate to Jerusalem's Old City in what police described as a "terror attack."

"Border police officers engaged with the terrorist, neutralized him with gunfire, and concluded the attack swiftly and professionally," police said.

The officer was evacuated and treated for his injuries, police said.

Houthi missile lands in Israel

Tensions throughout the region were heightened Sunday after a missile launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen landed in an open area in central Israel and triggered air raid sirens at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate, saying the Houthis "should have known by now that we charge a heavy price for any attempt to harm us."

The Yemeni rebels have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza last October, but nearly all of them have been intercepted over the Red Sea.

In the latest attack, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the rebels, said they fired a ballistic missile aiming at "a military target" in Jaffa, which is part of Tel Aviv.

The Houthis are among several Iran-backed groups in the Middle East that have been drawn into the conflict triggered by Hamas' shock attack on southern Israel last Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of 250 hostages. Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, a death toll Israel says includes several thousand militant fighters.

Hamas has been designated a terror group by the U.S., the U.K., EU and other Western nations.

Natasha Mozgovaya contributed to this report. Information from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse was used in this report.