At least 72 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes on northern Gaza
GAZA CITY
At least 72 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia yesterday, with local authorities saying that one of the attacks targeting a residential tower in the housing six Palestinian families.
The Israeli army “was aware that dozens of displaced civilians were inside these buildings and that the majority of them were children and women who had been displaced from their neighborhoods,” Gaza’s government media office added in a statement.
“Almost 30 percent of the victims of the Beit Lahiya massacre today are children,” it said.
A medical source also said that Israeli fighter jets hit a five-story building in the Beit Lahia area early yesterday, killing about 50 people and leaving several others trapped under the rubble.
Witnesses noted that over 70 displaced civilians had sheltered inside the targeted building.
Israeli police, meanwhile, arrested three suspects after flares were fired at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in the coastal city of Caesarea.
Netanyahu and his family were not at the residence when two flares were fired at it overnight, and there were no injuries, authorities said. A drone launched by Hezbollah struck the residence last month, also when Netanyahu and his family were away.
The police did not provide details about the suspects behind the flares, but officials pointed to domestic political critics of Netanyahu.
Critics blame Netanyahu for the security and intelligence failures that allowed the attack to happen and for not reaching a deal with Hamas to release scores of hostages still held inside Gaza.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin seized on the flare attack to call for a revival of his plans to overhaul the Israeli judiciary, which had sparked months of mass protests before the war.
“The time has come to provide full support for the restoration of the justice system and the law enforcement systems, and to put an end to anarchy, rampage, refusal and attempts to harm the Prime Minister," he said in a statement.
In Lebanon, Israeli ground forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon since they invaded six weeks ago before pulling back on Nov. 16 after battles with Hezbollah militants.
The clashes and further Israeli bombardment came as Lebanese and Hezbollah officials study a draft proposal presented by the U.S. on ending the war.
Over the weekend, Israel intensified its attacks on Lebanon as Lebanese authorities reported 145 attacks across the country in a single day.
