Strikes on Gaza, Lebanon persist as Wednesday aid deadline nears

Israel launched deadly strikes on Gaza and Lebanon on Sunday, rescuers and authorities said, ahead of a U.S. deadline for improved aid delivery to the Palestinian territory.

Rescuers in Gaza on Sunday said 30 people, including 13 children, were killed by Israeli strikes in the territory's north.

The Israeli military told AFP that it was "looking into the reports" of the strikes.

Vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in north Gaza, Israel on October 6 began a major air and ground assault.

The United Nations has described the area as under "siege," and the U.S. set a deadline of this coming week for Israel to get more aid in or face possible cuts to military assistance.

On the same day, Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike on the village of Almat north of Beirut killed 20 people, including three children. In Lebanon's south, Israeli strikes killed three Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers, the ministry also said.

So far, Israel's military operation in Gaza has killed at least 43,603 people, according to Gaza-based health ministry.

Since late September, Israel has been engaged in a two-front conflict after turning its focus north toward Lebanon, escalating air strikes, and sending in ground troops after almost a year of tit-for-tat exchanges of fire with Hezbollah. Hezbollah said it was acting in support of Hamas.

Israel's main military backer, the U.S., on October 15, warned that it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless Israel improves aid delivery to the Gaza Strip within 30 days – a deadline that expires on Wednesday.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at the time that top U.S. officials made "clear" to Israel's government that changes need to be made "to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today."

On Saturday, a UN-backed assessment warned that famine is imminent in northern Gaza.

Aid shipments allowed to enter Gaza were now lower than at any time since October 2023, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report.

The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of "an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring due to the rapidly deteriorating situation."

Israel's military questioned the report's credibility. A military statement said "all assessments by the IPC have proven incorrect and inconsistent with the situation on the ground." It denounced the information as "partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests."

The IPC said its process is "evidence-based" and ensures "a rigorous, neutral analysis."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hopes to use the remaining weeks of his term to press for an end to the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, a spokesman said on Thursday, before fellow mediator Qatar on Saturday said it had suspended its role in trying to broker a deal.

"Qatar would resume those efforts when the parties show their willingness and seriousness," Doha's foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said in a statement.

(With input from AFP)