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At least 17 people have been killed, including one child, in fresh and ramped-up Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said. The strikes came as an Israeli tank in Lebanon fired two rounds into the southern town of Markaba, 24 hours after a ceasefire that bars any “offensive military operations” took hold. Read our liveblog for all the latest developments on the conflict in the Middle East.
Lebanon to hold parliament session on January 9 to elect president
Lebanon’s parliament will hold a session in January to elect a new president, official media reported on Thursday, a day after an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire began and following more than two years of presidential vacuum.
“Speaker Nabih Berri called a parliament session to elect a president of the republic on January 9,” the official National News Agency reported.
Israeli tank fires two rounds into south Lebanese town
An Israeli tank has fired two rounds into the southern Lebanese town of Markaba, two Lebanese security sources told Reuters, 24 hours after a ceasefire barring “offensive military operations” came into force.
Lebanon’s state news agency said two people were wounded and transferred to hospital after an Israeli attack on the town, without specifying the type of attack.
At least 17 people killed in ramped-up Israeli strikes in Gaza
Israeli military strikes killed at least 17 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, as forces stepped up bombardments on central areas and pushed tanks deeper in the north and south of the enclave.
Six people were killed in two separate air strikes on a house and near the hospital of Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, while four others were killed when an Israeli strike hit a motorcycle in Khan Younis in the south.
In Nuseirat, one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, Israeli planes carried out several air strikes destroying a multi-floor building and hitting roads outside mosques. At least seven people were killed in some of those strikes, health officials said.
Medics said at least two people, a woman and a child, were killed in tank shelling that hit western areas of Nuseirat, while an air strike killed five others in a house nearby.
Morning, and welcome to FRANCE 24’s liveblog on the conflict in the Middle East.
- The French government has claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has immunity from the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for war crimes on the grounds that Israel isn’t an ICC member.
- The Israeli military said on Wednesday it shot down a drone that was carrying weapons and crossed from Egypt to Israel.
- Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Wednesday that it would continue resistance and stand alongside Palestinian fighters, a day after a ceasefire between the group and Israel was announced.
- The Biden administration is pushing ahead with a $680 million arms sales package to Israel, a US official familiar with the plan said on Wednesday.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, and Reteurs)
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
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