At least 20 people, including children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in the central part of the Gaza Strip, the Associated Press reported, citing local hospitals.
Two women were also killed in the attack last night in Nuseirat. The school housed some of the many Palestinians displaced by the more than year-long war in Gaza. The bodies were taken to "Al Awda" hospital. in Nuseirat and in hospital "The Martyrs of Al-Aqsa" in Deir al-Balah.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's bombing and ground operation in Gaza. In the ministry's data, no distinction is made between fighters and civilians.
Yesterday evening, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, quoted by Reuters, that five children were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip.
In Israeli attacks in Lebanon on Saturday, 51 people were killed and another 174 were injured, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported, as quoted by DPA.
Most of the victims are in southern Lebanon, near the city of Nabatieh and the mountainous areas, the ministry noted yesterday.
A total of 2,306 people have died and 10,698 have been injured in Lebanon since the outbreak of armed clashes between the Lebanese group "Hezbollah" and the Israeli army a little over a year ago, the department added.
Meanwhile, four Israeli soldiers were killed and seven more were seriously injured in an attack by "Hezbollah" drone attack on a military base near the city of Binyamina in central Israel - the deadliest strike by the Lebanese group since Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago, the Israeli military said, as cited by the Associated Press and BTA.
Shortly before the military statement, Israel's National Rescue Service said 61 people had been injured in the drone attack.
Earlier "Hezbollah" claimed responsibility for the attack on the base near Binyamina, saying it was in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people.
With Israel's advanced air defense systems, it is rare for so many people to be injured in drone or missile attacks. Israeli media reported that two drones were sent from Lebanon, and the military said one was intercepted.
This is the second time in two days that a drone has struck Israel. On Saturday, as Israelis celebrated the Yom Kippur holiday, a drone struck a suburb of Tel Aviv, causing damage but no injuries, AP notes.
The new strike came on the same day the US announced it would send Israel a new air defense system and soldiers to operate it to improve Israel's missile defenses. A spokesman for the Israeli army refused to give information on when the system will be delivered.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that attacks on peacekeepers could amount to a war crime, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, after Israeli tanks smashed the gate of a UN peacekeeper base in southern Lebanon, Reuters reported, citing from BTA.
This is another accusation against Israel of violations and attacks against the UN peacekeeping mission - UNIFIL - in recent days.
"UNIFIL peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly," Dujarric said in a statement.
"The Secretary-General reiterates that UNIFIL staff and its sites must not in any way become the target of attacks. Attacks on peacekeepers are in violation of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime," he added.
The Israeli army, quoted by Reuters, earlier said that one of its tanks entered the area of the UN Multinational Force post in Lebanon today while trying to evacuate wounded soldiers.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said their actions did not endanger UN peacekeepers. They specified that the tank was "under massive enemy fire" in the south of Lebanon, noted France Press.
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian spoke by phone with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, the offices of the two heads of state reported, as quoted by AFP and BTA.
The leaders discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the Palestinian Islamist movement "Hamas" and the Lebanese Shiite group "Hezbollah".
Macron has called on Pezeshkian to help with "general de-escalation" of tensions in the Middle East, his office said. The French head of state has emphasized Iran's "responsibility to help reduce tensions and use its influence in this direction - on the destabilizing participants in the events it supports".
The two discussed how to mediate a "ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon,", the Iranian president's office announced.
Pezeshkian, in turn, called on Macron to "assist European countries in forcing the Zionist regime to put an end to the genocide and the crimes it is committing in Gaza and Lebanon,", AFP noted.
Meanwhile, Macron also spoke with Lebanon's acting prime minister, Najib Mikati, Reuters reported. In front of him, the French president has emphasized the "categorical need" of an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.