Israel-Gaza-Lebanon updates: 87 killed in Israeli strikes on Beit Lahia

Hezbollah in Lebanon launches rocket attacks on Israel, IDF says.

ByDavid Brennan, Julia Reinstein, Nadine El-Bawab, Ivan Pereira, and Meredith Deliso
Last Updated: October 20, 2024, 3:20 PM EDT

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, was killed this week in a firefight with Israeli forces, officials said.

The development comes as Israel continues intense air and ground campaigns against Hezbollah in Lebanon and against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The uptick in offensive operations came as Israeli leaders planned their response to Iran's latest ballistic missile attack.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing.
Oct 14, 2024, 6:33 AM EDT

Israel kills 20 in strike on UNRWA school, health ministry says

At least 20 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East school-turned-shelter in central Gaza, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said.

Displaced families who fled northern Gaza arrive in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on Oct. 5, 2024.
Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images

The school was being used to shelter displaced people in Nuseirat camp, health authorities said. It was bombed on Sunday.

The school was earmarked for use in the planned second round of the Gaza polio vaccination campaign, which was due to begin on Monday.

-ABC News Diaa Ostaz and Guy Davies

Oct 14, 2024, 6:02 AM EDT

10 killed amid 'total siege' in northern Gaza

Ten people were killed in shelling at an aid distribution center in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza on Monday morning, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the strip.

The area has been the focus of intense recent Israeli military activity, with the Israel Defense Forces reporting fierce fighting with Hamas militants there.

Palestinians carry their belongings as they flee areas north of Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on Oct. 12, 2024.
Omar Al-qattaa/AFP via Getty Images

The IDF has ordered residents of northern Gaza -- of whom there are an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 -- to leave the region, which it has classified as a military zone.

Hamas is urging residents to stay, suggesting Israel will not allow those who leave to return.

Gaza's Civil Defense said there was a "complete siege" of Jabalia. Aid agencies have said that no food has been allowed to enter the north of Gaza since Oct. 1.

-ABC News' Nasser Atta and Guy Davies

Oct 14, 2024, 5:23 AM EDT

Israel to probe deadly drone attack on troops, Gallant says

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited the scene of a deadly Hezbollah drone strike in northern Israel on Monday, telling soldiers there the incident "was a difficult event with painful results."

Four troops were killed and 55 wounded in Sunday's attack on the Golani Training Base close to the town of Binyamina, some 20 miles south of Haifa.

A man looks on from inside an Israeli military ambulance at the site of a drone strike near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina, on Oct. 13, 2024.
Oren Ziv/AFP via Getty Images

"We must investigate it, study the details and implement lessons in a swift and professional manner," Gallant said, according to a Defense Ministry readout.

"We are concentrating significant efforts in developing solutions to address the threat of UAV attacks," he added

-ABC News' Jordana Miller

Oct 14, 2024, 4:59 AM EDT

IDF claims 200 strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces said Monday its warplanes targeted around 200 "Hezbollah terror targets" in its continuing operation against the Iranian-backed group in southern Lebanon.

The targets included "launchers, anti-tank missile launch posts, terrorist infrastructure and weapons storage facilities containing launchers, anti-tank missiles, RPG launchers and munitions," the IDF wrote on X.

An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile towards southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel on Oct. 13, 2024.
Leo Correa/AP

Ground forces, meanwhile, "eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters encounters and aerial strikes" in their ongoing cross-border incursion, the force reported.

The IDF is still describing its ground operation as consisting of "limited, localized, targeted raids" in southern areas close to the border.

Airstrikes, though, continue across southern Lebanon. Around a quarter of all Lebanese territory is under IDF evacuation orders and some 1.2 million civilians are displaced, according to the government in Beirut.

-ABC News' Jordana Miller

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