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AT LEAST 19 Palestinians were massacred during an Israeli attack on a mosque in the Gaza Strip today, Palestinian officials said.
The deadly attack came as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut, in its expanding war across the region.
Displaced people were sheltering at the mosque that was struck near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. Another four people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school sheltering displaced people near the town.
The Israeli military claimed both attacks were targeting resistance fighters, without providing evidence.
Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza a year after the group’s attack on Israel, and has invaded Lebanon in a new front against Hezbollah. The Israelis have also vowed to attack Iran in retaliation for Tehran’s missile attack on some of its military sites last week.
Israel, meanwhile, announced a new air and ground offensive on the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
It repeated its call, from the opening weeks of the war, for the complete evacuation of northern Gaza by the remaining 300,000 people, calling it a “new phase of the war” in a leaflet drop.
In Beirut, more than 30 air strikes hit the suburb of Dahiyeh on Sunday, the heaviest bombardment since September 23 when Israel escalated its air campaign.
The targets included a gas station on the main highway leading to the Beirut airport and a warehouse for medical supplies, the agency said.
Hezbollah said that it successfully targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel “with a large rocket salvo, hitting them accurately.” It was not possible to confirm the claim.
At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes in less than two weeks.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Hamas’s October 7 attack, as a show of support for the Palestinians.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday reiterated his call for a partial arms embargo on Israel.
Mr Macron’s office said that the president favours a halt to arms exports for use in Gaza because a ceasefire is needed “to stop the mounting violence, free the hostages, protect civilians and clear the way to the political solutions needed for the security of Israel and the whole Middle East.”
Earlier remarks on the subject by Mr Macron led to Mr Netanyahu releasing a video in which he called the French president a “disgrace.”
President Macron’s office described Mr Netanyahu’s remarks as “excessive.”
MORNING STAR