GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency on Sunday said Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory killed 16 people, including at least three children.

Six people were killed in overnight air strikes in Khan Yunis governorate, in the south of the Gaza Strip, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said. They included two boys aged five and two, in an apartment in Al-Mawasi.

The civil defense later said 10 more people were killed in a strike on a tent also in Al-Mawasi, among them a child and seven women.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond for comment when contact by AFP. A spokesperson said they were gathering details.

A military statement issued in the morning said the army had “struck more than 100 terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip” during the past two days.

It said soldiers found “weapons caches” and killed “a number of terrorists” in the south.

Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Sunday said at least 2,436 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, bringing the war’s overall death toll to 52,535.

Israel halted aid deliveries to Gaza, saying Hamas had diverted supplies. Israel says the blockade is meant to pressure the militants into releasing hostages held in the Palestinian territory.

UN agencies have urged Israel to lift restrictions, saying Gazans have been experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe and warning of famine.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s army said Sunday Hamas had handed over a Palestinian suspected of involvement in rocket fire at Israel, days after authorities warned the militant group against harming the country’s security.
Hamas handed over the man “at the entrance to Ain Al-Helweh,” an army statement said, referring to a restive Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon.
“He is suspected of involvement in two rocket launches toward” Israel from Lebanon on March 22 and 28, the statement said.
Israel responded to the rocket fire by bombing south Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hamas ally Hezbollah holds sway.
Israel’s military has continued to strike Lebanon despite a November ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war.
The Israeli military often says it has targeted Hezbollah operatives or infrastructure, but also occasionally Hamas members or other allies.
Sunday’s army statement said the suspect’s handover came based on the “recommendation of the Higher Defense Council and the Lebanese government decision on warning against the use of Lebanese territory to carry out any action that threatens Lebanese national security.”
The council issued the recommendation on Friday, warning that “the utmost measures” would be taken to stop any action that violates Lebanese sovereignty.
Last month, the army arrested several Lebanese and Palestinian individuals accused of involvement in the March launches.
A Lebanese security source told AFP at the time three Hamas members had been arrested.
No group claimed responsibility for the rocket launches, and Hezbollah denied any involvement.