Israel’s military carries out strikes in Lebanon and Gaza, killing dozens of people

Meanwhile, after Israel reported its soldiers were fired on in southern Gaza, health officials in the territory said Israeli strikes killed at least 25 Palestinians in one of the deadliest days in Gaza since the Oct. 10 ceasefire agreement took effect. Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to a buffer zone in Syrian territory that Israel seized last year.

Israel claims Hezbollah is regrouping

Israel’s military warned Wednesday it would strike targets in several villages in southern Lebanon, describing them as Hezbollah infrastructure, and called on people to move away from the locations. More than an hour later, strikes began in the villages of Shehour and Deir Kifa.

Israel’s military said Hezbollah was working to reestablish itself and rebuild its capacity in southern Lebanon, without providing evidence. It said the weapons’ facilities targeted were embedded among civilians and violated understandings between Israel and Lebanon. Israel agreed to a ceasefire and withdraw from southern Lebanon last year and Lebanon agreed to quell Hezbollah activity in the area.

Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike on a car in the southern Lebanese village of Tiri killed one person and wounded 11, including students aboard a nearby bus, the Lebanese Health Ministry and state media said. State-run National News Agency said the school bus happened to be passing near the car that was hit.

Israel’s military later said it killed a Hezbollah operative in the drone strike.

In Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, just outside the port city of Sidon, life appeared normal Wednesday. Lebanese authorities prevented journalists from entering. At the scene of the strike, paramedics searched for human remains around a wall that was stained with blood. Several cars were burned and broken glass and debris littered the ground.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas training compound that was being used to prepare an attack against Israel and its army. It added that the Israeli army would continue to act against Hamas wherever it operates.

Hamas denied in a statement that the sports playground that was hit was its training compound.

Palestinian factions in refugee camps hand over weapons

Palestinian factions in Lebanon’s 12 refugee camps earlier this year began handing over their weapons to the Lebanese state. The government has said that it will also work on disarming Hezbollah, but Hezbollah has rejected it as long as Israel continues to occupy several hills along the border and carries out almost daily strikes.

The US has recently increased pressure on Lebanon to work harder on disarming Hezbollah and canceled a planned trip to Washington this week by Lebanese army commander Gen. Rudolph Haikal.

A senior Lebanese army officer told The Associated Press that US officials were angered by an army statement on Sunday that blamed Israel for destabilizing Lebanon and blocking the Lebanese military deployment in south Lebanon. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel, after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel launched a widespread bombardment of Lebanon two months ago that severely weakened Hezbollah, followed by a ground invasion.

That war, the most recent of several conflicts involving Hezbollah over the past four decades, killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $11 billion worth of destruction, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.

Israeli strikes kill 25 in Gaza

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that Israeli strikes killed 25 Palestinians and injured 77 since the afternoon in one of the deadliest days since the Oct. 10 ceasefire took effect. Hospital officials who received the bodies said they came from on both sides of the yellow line established in last month’s ceasefire.

The boundary splits the enclave in two, leaving the border zone under Israeli military control while the area beyond it is meant to serve as a safe zone.

Officials at al-Ahli, Shifa, Nasser and Kuwaiti hospitals reported they received the bodies of those killed from Gaza City, Khan Younis and the Muwasi area, the southern Gaza displacement camp. An Israeli strike also killed one person in Shijaiyah, a Gaza City neighborhood outside the safe zone where Israeli forces remain deployed.

The Israeli military said its strikes responded to militants who had opened fire on Israeli forces in Khan Younis earlier in the day. It said no soldiers were killed.

On Wednesday Hamas condemned the Israeli strikes across Gaza City and Khan Younis, calling them a “shocking massacre.” In a statement, the group denied firing toward Israeli troops.

Israeli strikes have decreased since the ceasefire agreement took effect, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, though they have not stopped entirely. After Wednesday evening’s strikes, the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, has reported more than 300 deaths since the truce began, an average of more than seven per day.

Each side has accused the other of violating its terms, which include increasing the flow of aid into Gaza and returning hostages — dead or alive — to Israel.

The deaths are among the more than 69,000 Palestinians killed since Israel launched its sweeping offensive more than two years ago in response to Hamas-led militants abducting 251 people and killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.

Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records seen as a reliable estimate by the U.N. and many independent experts.

Netanyahu visits buffer zone within Syria

Top Israeli officials including Netanyahu traveled Wednesday into a demilitarized buffer zone in Syria that Israel seized after the fall of President Bashar Assad last year. “We attach immense importance to our defensive and offensive capability here,” Netanyahu said. “This is a mission that can develop at any moment.”

Its December 2024 operations drew swift condemnation, with critics accusing Israel of using Syria’s turmoil to expand its control of the Golan Heights, which it captured and annexed in 1967 in a move that is not recognized by most of the international community.

Israeli incursions in southern Syria have intensified in recent months, with residents reporting forest destruction, advances onto farmland and Israeli military checkpoints. The zone, which wraps the Golan Heights, has also attracted interest from Israeli settlers.

Syria’s new authorities have condemned Israel’s incursions but said they do not want to enter into a military confrontation. Syrian and Israeli officials have been negotiating on a potential security agreement to defuse tensions but the talks appear to have stalled.

The provocative visit by the prime minister drew fresh criticism from Syria and neighboring countries.

In a statement, Syria’s Foreign Ministry said the visit was an attempt to entrench Israeli control and called it “a grave violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”