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

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

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.

Oct 20, 2024, 8:55 AM EDT

Doctors Without Borders calls on Israel to stop attacking north Gaza hospitals

Doctors Without Borders is calling on Israeli forces to "immediately stop their attacks on hospitals in north Gaza," alleging that six of its staff are trapped in a Jabalia hospital without power and one was killed from shrapnel injuries that could not be adequately treated.

In a statement Saturday, the agency -- also known as MSF or Médecins Sans Frontières -- referred to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza and other medics on the ground as reporting that Israeli forces are besieging the three main hospitals in northern Gaza. MSF said 350 patients are trapped inside the hospitals, including patients who are pregnant and just underwent surgery.

"The ever-worsening escalation of violence and nonstop Israeli military operations that we have been witnessing over the past two weeks in northern Gaza have horrifying consequences,” MSF's emergency coordinator in Gaza said, adding, "This is purely and simply a collective punishment imposed on Palestinians in Gaza, who must choose between being forcibly displaced from the north or killed. We fear that this will not stop."

There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.

-ABC News' Victoria Beaule

Oct 20, 2024, 5:38 AM EDT

87 killed in Israeli strikes on Beit Lahia, officials say

Israel killed 87 Palestinians in a Saturday night bombardment of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, the Hamas-run government media office in the strip reported.

Around 40 people were injured in the attacks, with many others reported missing and believed to be under rubble, officials said. Aid teams were working to reach the victims, the office added.

The Israel Defense Forces issued a statement disputing the media office's report.

The IDF claimed in a post on X that the toll was "exaggerated" and does not align with its analysis.

-ABC News' Samy Zyara, Jordana Miller and Somayeh Malekian

Oct 20, 2024, 4:54 AM EDT

70 projectiles fired into Israel from Lebanon, IDF says

The Israel Defense Forces said it identified around 70 projectiles fired into Israel from Lebanon on Sunday morning.

The launches set off sirens in the Western Galilee and Upper Galilee areas, the IDF wrote in a statement posted to X.

Some projectiles were intercepted, the IDF said.

"Israel Fire and Rescue Services are operating to extinguish numerous fires that were ignited in the area as a result of the attack," the IDF wrote.

-ABC News' Jordana Miller

Oct 20, 2024, 3:39 AM EDT

IDF claims killing of Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday reported the killing of a senior member of Hezbollah's southern front command.

Al-Haj Abbas Salama was killed by an airstrike in the Tebnine area of southern Lebanon, the IDF wrote on social media.

Salama, the IDF said, was involved in "many terrorist plots" and served in several positions in Hezbollah's southern front command.

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