DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on a five-story building where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 60 people early Tuesday, more than half of them women and children, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
In a separate development, Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah said it has chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem to succeed longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month. Hezbollah vowed to continue with Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.”
Meanwhile, eight Austrian soldiers serving in the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon were lightly injured in a missile strike at the Naqoura camp, Austrian authorities said.
Defense Ministry spokesperson Michael Bauer wrote on social network X that the incident happened Tuesday lunchtime. He said it wasn’t immediately clear who was responsible for the strike. None of the soldiers needed emergency treatment.
Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner “condemns this attack in the strongest terms and calls on all sides immediately to cease combat operations in the surroundings of the U.N. mission’s positions,” Bauer wrote.
Israel also faced a backlash after passing legislation that could severely restrict the ability of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees to operate in the Palestinian territories. The agency, known as UNRWA, is the largest aid provider in Gaza. Israel has long accused it of militant ties, allegations it denies.
A spokesperson for the U.N. children’s agency said the decision “means that a new way has been found to kill children.”
Hezbollah’s new leader vows to keep fighting Israel
Hezbollah said in a statement that its decision-making Shura Council elected Kassem, who had been Nasrallah’s deputy leader for over three decades, as the new secretary-general.
Kassem, 71, a founding member of the militant group established following Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, had been serving as acting leader. He has given several televised speeches vowing that Hezbollah will fight on despite a string of setbacks.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation, after Hamas’ surprise attack out of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, triggered the war there. Iran, which backs both groups, has also directly traded fire with Israel, in April and then again this month.
The tensions with Hezbollah boiled over in September, as Israel unleashed a wave of heavy airstrikes and killed Nasrallah and most of his senior commanders. Israel launched a ground invasion into Lebanon at the start of October.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday, killing at least one person in the northern city of Maalot-Tarshiha, authorities said.
Even as attention has shifted to Lebanon and Iran in recent weeks, Israel has continued to wage a large operation in northern Gaza and to carry out airstrikes across the territory.
Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of the field hospitals’ department at the Gaza Health Ministry, announced the toll from Tuesday’s strike in the northern town of Beit Lahiya at a news conference. He said another 17 people are missing.
