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Gaza Rescuers Say at Least 18 Killed in Israeli Strikes

A view of destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, 15 September 2024. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
A view of destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, 15 September 2024. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
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Gaza Rescuers Say at Least 18 Killed in Israeli Strikes

A view of destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, 15 September 2024. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
A view of destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, 15 September 2024. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Gaza rescuers and medics said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 18 people across the Palestinian territory overnight and on Monday morning, including 10 in one attack on a house.

The 10 were killed and 15 others were injured when an airstrike hit the home of the Al-Qassas family in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, a medic at Al-Awda hospital, where the bodies were brought, told AFP.

Gaza's civil defense agency confirmed the death toll, with its spokesman Mahmoud Bassal saying the strike took place on Monday morning.

The agency said six Palestinians were killed in a similar airstrike during the night on a house belonging to the Bassal family in Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood, a regular target of Israeli military raids since the war began in October.

Two people were killed in another overnight airstrike in Rafah that targeted a house belonging to the Abu Shaar family, the agency said.

Several people were also wounded in these strikes, medics and rescuers said.

Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling have continued relentlessly amid an impasse over a ceasefire deal to facilitate the release of remaining hostages in Gaza in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.

The war in Gaza erupted after the October 7 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants on southern Israel.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has so far killed at least 41,206 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry.

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Israeli Minister Says Time Running out for Diplomatic Solution with Hezbollah in Lebanon

Israeli artillery shells an area of Al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, 11 September 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli artillery shells an area of Al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, 11 September 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Israeli Minister Says Time Running out for Diplomatic Solution with Hezbollah in Lebanon

Israeli artillery shells an area of Al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, 11 September 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli artillery shells an area of Al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, 11 September 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that the window was closing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon.

Gallant's remarks came as the White House Special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel to discuss the crisis on the northern border where Israeli troops have been exchanging missile fire with Hezbollah forces for months.

"The possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out," Gallant told Austin in a phone call, according to a statement from his office, Reuters reported.

As long as Hezbollah continued to tie itself to Hamas in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been engaged for almost a year, "the trajectory is clear," he said.

The visit by Hochstein, who is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, comes amid efforts to find a diplomatic path out of the crisis, which has forced tens of thousands on both sides of the border to leave their homes.

On Monday, Israeli media reported that the head of the army's northern command had recommended a rapid border operation to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

While the war in Gaza has been Israel's main focus since the attack by Hamas-led gunmen on Oct. 7 last year, the precarious situation in the north has fuelled fears of a regional conflict that could drag in the United States and Iran.

A missile barrage by Hezbollah the day after Oct. 7 opened the latest phase of conflict and since then there have been daily exchanges of rockets, artillery fire and missiles, with Israeli jets striking deep into Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah has said it does not seek a wider war at present but would fight if Israel launched one.

Israeli officials have said for months that Israel cannot accept the clearance of its northern border areas indefinitely but while troops remain committed to Gaza, there have also been questions about the military's readiness for an invasion of southern Lebanon.

However, some of the hardline members of the Israeli government have been pressing for action and on Monday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a longtime foe of Gallant, called for him to be sacked.

"We need a decision in the north and Gallant is not the right person to lead it," he said in a statement on the social media platform X.

Hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed in the exchanges of fire, which have left communities on both sides of the border as virtual ghost towns.