At least 11 people killed in Israeli airstrikes that hit two different areas in central Beirut

At least 11 people were killed and 48 wounded in Israeli airstrikes that hit two different areas in central Beirut on Thursday evening Lebanons health ministry saidAn Associated Press photographer who went to the scene of the strikes said the first one in the area of Ras alNabaa appeared to have hit the lower half of an eightstorey apartment building and that explosions were ongoing inside the building A large number of ambulances arrived at the sceneThe second strike in the area of Burj Abi Haidar collapsed an entire building which was engulfed in flames There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military In recent weeks Israel has launched frequent strikes on Beiruts southern suburbs but strikes in central Beirut are rare The reports came as the Israeli military continued to pound Hezbollah targets across LebanonEarlier in the day an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people Palestinian medical officials said The Israeli military said it targeted militants but people sheltering there said the strike hit a meeting of aid workersIsrael has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave even as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran The military launched a largescale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this weekIn a separate development the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers The attack drew widespread condemnation and prompted the Italian Defence Ministry to summon Israels ambassador in protestThe Israeli military acknowledged opening fire at a UN base in southern Lebanon on Thursday and said it had ordered the peacekeepers to remain in protected spacesBefore the Beirut strikes Lebanons crisis response unit said Israeli shellfire and airstrikes had killed 28 people and wounded 113 bringing the total to 2169 killed and 10212 people wounded in Lebanon since the war erupted last October At least four people were killed Thursday in the eastern Bekaa Valley Lebanese health authorities saidHezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians in northern Israel since the war began as well as 39 Israeli soldiers including both in northern Israel since last October and in southern Lebanon since Israels invasionAid group says staff killed in strike on schoolThe Israeli strike in the central Gaza city of Deir alBalah killed 27 people including a child and seven women according to the AlAqsa Martyrs Hospital where the bodies were brought An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies many of which arrived in piecesThe Israeli military said it targeted a militant command and control centre inside the school without providing evidence Israel has repeatedly attacked schools that were turned into shelters in Gaza accusing militants of taking cover in themWitnesses said the strike occurred while school managers were meeting with representatives of an aid group in a room normally used by Hamasrun police who provide security They said there were no police in the room at the time The Palestinian branch of Terre des Hommes a Swiss aid group said in a statement that members of one of its childrens health teams were killed in the strike without specifying how manyThere were no militants There was no Hamas said Iftikhar Hamouda who had fled from northern Gaza earlier in the war We headed to tents They bombed the tents In the streets they bombed us In the markets they bombed us In the schools they bombed us she said Where should we goThe Hamasrun government operated a civilian police force numbering in the tens of thousands They largely vanished from the streets after the start of the war as Israel targeted them with airstrikes but plainclothes Hamas security personnel still exert control over most areas Hamas has continued to launch attacks on Israeli forces more than a year after the Palestinian militants October 7 attack on southern Israel that ignited the warThe militants stormed into Israel in that attack killing some 1200 people mostly civilians and abducting around 250 others They are still holding around 100 captives a third of whom are believed to be dead Israels offensive has killed over 42000 Palestinians according to local health authorities who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 per cent of its population of 23 million people often multiple timesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in 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