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In April, a strike on a WCK aid convoy killed seven workers — Frankcom, along with three British citizens, a Polish national, a Canadian-American dual national and a Palestinian. The Israeli military called it a mistake. That strike prompted an international outcry. Another Palestinian WCK worker was killed in August by shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike, the group said.
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Another Israeli airstrike on Saturday hit a car near a food distribution point in Khan Younis, killing 13 people, including children. The bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital.
“They were distributing aid, vegetables, and we saw the missile landing,” witness Rami Al-Sori said. A woman sat on the ground and wept.
Save the Children said a local employee was killed in one of the Khan Younis airstrikes while returning from a mosque.
Ceasefire appears to hold
Efforts for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have faltered. But the US and France-brokered deal for Lebanon appears to be holding since Wednesday.
On Saturday, Israel’s military said it struck sites used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon after the ceasefire took effect. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or Hezbollah. Israeli aircraft have struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon several times, citing truce violations.
Israel’s strike in Syria came as insurgents breached Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, bringing fresh uncertainty to the region.
The truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah calls for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants should withdraw north of Lebanon’s Litani River and Israeli forces should return to their side of the border.
Many Lebanese, some of the 1.2 million displaced, streamed home despite warnings by the Israeli and Lebanese militaries to avoid certain areas.
“Day by day, we will return to our normal lives,” said Mustafa Badawi, a cafe owner in Tyre.
The toll of conflicts
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli drone strike on Rub Thalatheen killed two people and wounded two others, and another hit a car in Majdal Zoun. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said three people were wounded, including a seven-year-old.
Israel’s military said it had been operating to distance “suspects” in the region, without elaborating. Israel says it reserves the right to strike against any perceived violations.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel on October 8, 2023, in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israel and Hezbollah kept up cross-border fire until Israel escalated with an attack that detonated hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah. It then launched an intense aerial bombardment that killed Hezbollah leaders including Hassan Nasrallah, and a ground invasion in October.
Relatives and supporters of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip march in Jerusalem last week to call for a deal for their release.Credit: AP
More than 3760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel, more than half of them civilians, and dozens of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.
Hamas’ October 2023 attack killed 1200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage.
On Saturday, Hamas released a video of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander. Speaking under duress, Alexander referred to being held for 420 days and mentioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent $US5 million offer for the hostages’ return.
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“The prime minister is supposed to protect his soldiers and citizens, and you abandoned us,” Alexander said.
Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with Alexander’s family after the release of the “brutal psychological warfare video” that held “an important and exciting sign of life”.
“[Netanyahu] reassured me and promised that now, after reaching an arrangement in Lebanon, conditions are right to free you all and bring you home,” Alexander’s mother, Yael, told protesters in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.
A statement from US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett called the video “a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own”.
“The war in Gaza would stop tomorrow and the suffering of Gazans would end immediately – and would have ended months ago – if Hamas agreed to release the hostages,” it said.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
AP
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