32 dead in Lebanon, Gaza as Israel ramps up strikes

CAIRO:

Following the killing of Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah, Israel has intensified airstrikes in Gaza and Lebanon that left 32 people dead – including 21 Lebanese and 11 Palestinians - on Sunday.

A school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip was among buildings hit, killing four people and wounded several others, Gaza medics said.

In another strike, three people were killed in a house in Gaza City, medics said. Four others were killed in three

separate airstrikes in Nuseirat and Khan Younis in central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces pursued their operations in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, and in Gaza City's suburb of Zeitoun, where forces blew up several houses, according to residents and Hamas media.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 41,595 people have been killed and 96,251 wounded in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 12th month. Meanwhile, Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli air strikes killed 21 people on Sunday in east Lebanon, which has been hit by a wave of attacks for nearly a week.

"The Israeli enemy raids on Baalbek-Hemel have killed 21 people and wounded 47," the ministry said, giving a provisional toll, as an AFP journalist reported heavy raids Sunday in the Baalbek area.

The health ministry added that 14 paramedics had been killed in two days of intense Israeli bombardment in Lebanon's east and south and in Beirut where it had killed Hezbollah's leader.

"This series of attacks killed 14 paramedics in two days," the ministry said in a statement, adding it "condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli enemy's repeated attacks on medical centres" and that "paramedics do not participate in hostilities".

Besides, the body of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli air strike on southern Beirut, has been recovered, a source close to the movement told AFP on Sunday.

"His body was recovered on Saturday and was placed in a shroud on Sunday after being washed," the source said, requesting anonymity.

"The funeral ceremony and his burial have not yet been arranged," the source added.

Before his death on Friday when Israeli jets attacked Hezbollah's heartland in the south of the Lebanese capital, Nasrallah was considered the most powerful man in the country.

For more than three decades he headed the Iran-backed movement that was Israel's sworn enemy.

Friday's air strike also killed Ali Karake, the group's top commander in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah said on Sunday.

It has not named others who died alongside Nasrallah and Karake.

However, Israel's military on Sunday claimed to have killed more than 20 others of varying ranks in the attack.

Beirut's southern suburbs, and south and east Lebanon have been subject to intense Israeli bombardment for a week, with the country's health ministry reporting more than 700 people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

In addition, Lebanon's army on Sunday warned Lebanese against actions that would disturb public order in the crisis-hit country after Israel's killing of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the powerful Iran-backed group Hezbollah.

The army in a statement said it "calls on citizens to preserve national unity and not to be drawn into actions that may affect civil peace at this dangerous and delicate stage", following the massive Friday strike that killed Nasrallah and as Israeli attacks continue.

"The Israeli enemy is working to implement its destructive plans and sow division among Lebanese," the army statement added.