The Israel Defense Forces conducted what it called "precise strikes on military targets" in Iran on Friday in response to the Iranian missile strikes earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes and ground fighting continued in Gaza -- particularly in the north of the strip -- and in Lebanon, with renewed Israeli attacks on Beirut.
The World Health Organization has continued to evacuate patients from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, as the hospital continues to receive "a constant stream of trauma patients due to ongoing hostilities in the area," said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, Wednesday.
There are now only two surgeons left at the hospital. The WHO has transferred 23 critical patients to Al-Shifa Hospital and 16 patients from Al-Shifa to Nasser Medical Complex in a multiday mission to north Gaza in the past two days.
Medics evacuate injured people and cancer patients from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on Oct. 28, 2024, to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City in a joint World Health Organisation and Palestinian Red Crescent initiative.
AFP via Getty Images
The Kamal Adwan Hospital building and equipment sustained damage during the most recent siege and its four ambulances were destroyed.
"We have provided medical supplies, food and water for patients at Kamal Adwan Hospital -- but much more is needed. Additionally, this week we have also provided 40,000 liters of fuel and medical supplies for six hospitals in Gaza City," the director-general said.
Oct 30, 2024, 11:42 AM EDT
Israel issues evacuation warning for entire city of Baalbek, in eastern Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces issued an evacuation warning for residents in the entire eastern Lebanese city of Baalbeck and the surrounding areas and key routes into the Bekaa Valley. This includes the ancient Roman temple complex, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbek, in the Bekaa valley, on Oct. 30, 2024.
Nidal Solh/AFP via Getty Images
The deliberate targeting of a World Heritage Site is a war crime under international law.
Residents have been told to evacuate their homes "immediately" and move outside the city and villages, according to the evacuation warning.
There are nearly 80,000 residents in the city, adding to the hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon who are already displaced.
Oct 30, 2024, 7:50 AM EDT
Israeli official explains deadly strike in north Gaza
An airstrike on a residential building that killed at least 110 people in Beit Lahia in north Gaza on Tuesday -- per figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health -- was targeting a person acting suspiciously on its roof, an Israeli military official told ABC News.
The official said they did not know there were so many people in the building, as everyone in the area had already been told to leave.
Men search the rubble for missing people at the site of an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on Oct. 30, 2024.
-/AFP via Getty Images
The official added they were skeptical of the death toll provided by the Gaza Ministry of Health, a sentiment expressed by the Israel Defense Forces in a public statement regarding the incident.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Tuesday described the strike as a "horrifying incident with a horrifying result."
Emergency responders said the airstrike hit a five-story building housing displaced people, with at least 25 children among the dead. Many more people are still missing, officials said.
-ABC News' Britt Clennett
Oct 30, 2024, 3:58 AM EDT
UNRWA not 'darlings of Hamas,' official says after Israel ban
Juliette Touma, UNRWA's chief spokesperson, told ABC News the agency is "impossible to replace, especially in a place like Gaza," following the Israeli parliament's decision to ban the organization from operating in Israel.
UNRWA has warned that the move could severely curtail the aid agency's ability to get desperately needed aid into Gaza. Israeli allies abroad -- including in the U.S. -- have also warned that the Israeli parliament's move could exacerbate humanitarian concerns across Palestinian areas in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Palestinians queue to receive medicine at the UNRWA Japanese Health Center in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 29, 2024.
Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images
"We have the logisticians, the humanitarian experts who know how to deliver humanitarian assistance and how to drive around and reach people in need. These are humanitarian experts who have been doing this for aid for many, many years," Touma said.
Israel has alleged that UNRWA -- which since 1950 has been responsible for supporting Palestinian refugees displaced during Israel's independence war -- is compromised by Palestinian militant groups.
A source from the Israeli Prime Minister's Office told ABC News, "UNRWA is tainted with terror and perpetuates the Palestinian problem. That is why the ban is due."
Touma disputed the assertion. "It is not as if we are the darlings of Hamas," she said. "We have continued to have a very, very bad relationship with Hamas. On a number of occasions throughout the war we have called out publicly against Hamas."
Touma said Israel is under legal obligation "to provide for the services and welfare for the community it's occupying."
Israeli authorities say they will do so without UNRWA help. But Touma said she was skeptical.
"I'm not entirely sure that they know what they're doing, practically speaking, in terms of the ability to cater and to provide humanitarian assistance to 2 million people in Gaza," she said.
The ban on UNRWA, Touma added, will not address the need for an agency serving its role.
"UNRWA exists because of the failure of the international community to reach a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," she said.
