Israel attacks Gaza and Lebanon overnight, Netanyahu convenes generals

(Patria) - Israeli aircraft bombed Gaza and southern Lebanon early Monday, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of top generals and the war cabinet to assess the escalating conflict, Reuters reports.

Israeli attacks have been concentrated on the center and north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian media report. Health authorities in Gaza announced that at least 4,600 people have been killed in two weeks of Israeli bombardment that began after Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1,400 people and took 212 hostage to Gaza.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian discussed late Sunday ways to stop Israel's "brutal crimes" in Gaza, Hamas said in a statement.

Fears that the war could escalate into a wider Middle East conflict grew over the weekend, with Washington warning of significant risks to U.S. interests in the region and announcing a new deployment of advanced air defense, including previously deployed aircraft carriers.

In neighboring Syria, where Hamas's main regional backer Iran has a military presence, Israeli missiles hit the international airports in Damascus and Aleppo early Sunday, putting both out of service and killing two workers, Syrian state media reported.
Along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group has clashed with Israeli forces in the deadliest escalation of border violence since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

Israeli aircraft early Monday struck two Hezbollah cells planning to launch anti-tank missiles and rockets toward Israel, its army said. The army says it struck other Hezbollah targets, including a complex and a lookout post.

Hezbollah announced late Sunday the deaths of six more fighters, bringing the number of its members killed since October 7 to 26.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the international community to create a "united front" to stop Israeli attacks in Gaza and allow desperately needed aid, which has only just begun to arrive.

A second convoy of 14 aid trucks entered the besieged Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on Sunday evening, and U.S. President Joe Biden and Netanyahu confirmed in a call "that the flow of this critical aid to Gaza will now continue," the White House said.

The UN humanitarian office said the volume of aid that has arrived so far amounted to only 4% of the daily average before hostilities and only a fraction of what is needed in food, water, medicine, and fuel supplies.

A spokesperson for the Gaza Ministry of Health said on Sunday that since October 7, Israeli strikes on Gaza have resulted in the deaths of 4,651 Palestinians, 40 percent of whom were children, Reuters reported.

More than 14,245 people have been injured, 70 percent of whom are children and women, it was announced. Spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said that 266 Palestinians, including 117 children, were killed in Israeli attacks in the last 24 hours.