Israel-Gaza-Lebanon updates: Netanyahu calls UN troops Hezbollah 'human shields'

Northern Gaza has been bombarded with airstrikes, with 118 attacks recorded in the past two days compared to 140 in September, according to a United Nations agency.

"Ongoing military operations and continuous airstrikes on northern Gaza are heavily affecting the population," the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said on X on Thursday.

The World Food Programme warned the situation in the north is "worsening again," saying they are no longer able to distribute food in the region.

"Virtually the entire area is under evacuation orders, and thousands of families have been forced to flee amid intense airstrikes and military operations on the ground," the organization said in a press release on Wednesday. "There is nowhere for these people to go and hardly any way for WFP to reach them."

Dozens of people were killed in the past 24 hours in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

Twenty-eight people were killed and another 113 injured, bringing the total casualties since the increased fighting began in mid-September to 2,169 fatalities and 10,212 injuries, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

There were 61 airstrikes recorded in the past 24 hours in various parts of Lebanon, largely in the south, according to the Lebanese prime minister's situation report on Thursday.

The Israeli Defense Forces issued a warning to sites "in and near southern villages" in Lebanon on Thursday as it continues its campaign against Hezbollah.

Israeli forces struck more than 110 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past day, the IDF said in a statement on Thursday.

-ABC News' Ghazi Balkiz and Dorit Long

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with his security cabinet on Thursday evening local time.

Israeli media reported that Israel's planned retaliation against Iran for its Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack is among the topics to be discussed.

Netanyahu and other officials have vowed a significant response to the barrage, which Tehran justified as a "legal, rational and legitimate response" to Israeli strikes and targeted killings in Iran and Lebanon.

"Iran made a big mistake tonight -- and it will pay for it," Netanyahu said shortly after Iran's Oct. 1 attack.

This week, Netanyahu said Israel is the "one force in the world that stands in Iran's way to conquest." He added, "It's not only our fight, it's the free world's fight."

Netanyahu spoke with President Joe Biden on Wednesday. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the conversation between the two leaders was "direct" and "productive."

-ABC News' Joe Simonetti

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Thursday that Israeli forces fired on three peacekeeper bases in the south of the country, injuring two troops.

"UNIFIL's Naqoura headquarters and nearby positions have been repeatedly hit" amid fighting between Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah in the area, the mission said in a post to X.

Two peacekeepers were injured at the Naqoura position "after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower," the mission wrote, "directly hitting it and causing them to fall. The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital."

Elsewhere, UNIFIL said IDF fire on its camp in Labbouneh hit the entrance to a bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communications system.

The IDF also fired at and disabled the perimeter-monitoring cameras at Labbouneh, UNIFIL said. An IDF drone was observed above the position, the mission added.

"Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701," UNIFIL said, referring to the 2006 U.N. Security Council agreement that sought to end the last major cross-border war between Israel and Hezbollah.

"We are following up with the IDF on these matters," it added.

-ABC News' Ghazi Balkiz