Death Toll Reaches 33 in Gaza Strikes  11/20 06:03

   

   DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) -- A pair of Israeli strikes in Gaza's southern 
city of Khan Younis early Thursday killed five people, according to hospital 
officials, bringing the death toll from airstrikes in the Palestinian territory 
over a roughly 12-hour period to 33. The strikes have been some of the 
deadliest since Oct. 10 when a U.S.-brokered ceasefire came into force.

   The renewed escalation came after Israel said its soldiers had come under 
fire in Khan Younis on Wednesday. Israel said no soldiers were killed and 
responded with strikes.

   Officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said they received the bodies of 
17 people, including five women and five children following four Israeli 
airstrikes targeting tents sheltering displaced people.

   In Gaza City, two airstrikes on a building killed 16 people, including seven 
children and three women, according to officials at the Al-Shifa hospital in 
the northern part of the city where the bodies were taken.

   Hamas condemned the Israeli strikes as a "shocking massacre." In a 
statement, the group denied firing toward Israeli troops.

   Ceasefire again under pressure

   Hospital officials said the bodies came from both sides of a line 
established in last month's ceasefire. The boundary splits Gaza in two, leaving 
the border zone under Israeli military control while the area beyond it is 
meant to serve as a safe zone.

   Israeli strikes have decreased since the ceasefire agreement took effect, 
according to Gaza's Health Ministry, though they have not stopped entirely.

   The ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, 
reported more than 300 deaths since the truce began, an average of more than 
seven per day. Each side has accused the other of violating its terms, which 
include increasing the flow of aid into Gaza and returning hostages -- dead or 
alive -- to Israel.

   The deaths are among the more than 69,000 Palestinians killed since Israel 
launched its sweeping offensive more than two years ago in response to 
Hamas-led militants abducting 251 people and killing around 1,200 people, 
mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Gaza's 
Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical 
professionals, maintains detailed records seen as a reliable estimate by the 
U.N. and many independent experts.

   Israel targets Hezbollah in Lebanon

   The Gaza strikes coincided with a barrage of Israeli airstrikes in southern 
Lebanon on Wednesday on what the Israeli military said said were Hezbollah 
sites, including weapons storage facilities. A day earlier, an Israeli 
airstrike killed 13 people in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, 
the deadliest of Israeli attacks on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the 
Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago.

   The Israeli military said Hezbollah was working to reestablish itself and 
rebuild its capacity in southern Lebanon, without providing evidence. It said 
the weapons' facilities targeted were embedded among civilians and violated 
understandings between Israel and Lebanon. Israel agreed to a ceasefire and 
withdrew from southern Lebanon last year and Lebanon agreed to quell Hezbollah 
activity in the area.

   Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike on a car in the southern Lebanese 
village of Tiri killed one person and wounded 11, including students aboard a 
nearby bus, the Lebanese Health Ministry and state media said. State-run 
National News Agency said the school bus happened to be passing near the car 
that was hit.

   Israel's military later said it killed a Hezbollah operative in the drone 
strike.

   New Israeli settlement near Bethlehem

   Meanwhile, Israeli settlers reportedly set up a new settlement near 
Bethlehem in Gush Etzion overnight. Etzion Council Chairman Yaron Rosenthal 
welcomed the settlement as an Israeli "return to the city of our matriarch 
Rachel, of King David."

   Rosenthal said the new community would "strengthen the connection between 
the eastern part" of Etzion and Jerusalem.

   Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza -- areas claimed by 
the Palestinians for a future state -- in the 1967 Mideast war. It has settled 
over 500,000 Jews in the West Bank, most of whom live on authorized 
settlements, in addition to over 200,000 others in contested east Jerusalem, 
which it claims as part of its capital.

   A growing wave of settler violence in the West Bank has been condemned by 
Israel's president and high-ranking military officials.

   Israel's government is dominated by far-right proponents of the settler 
movement including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who formulates settlement 
policy, and Cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the nation's police 
force.