Israeli strikes killed 38 people in southern Gaza, according to local officials, and three journalists overnight in southern Lebanon, their networks and local officials said — an attack that drew accusations of war crimes Friday from the country’s government.
Israeli forces meanwhile besieged and stormed one of the few functioning hospitals in northern Gaza according to local health officials, as they continued an intense assault on that part of the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attacks.
They came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken finished a Middle East tour aimed at ending the spiraling conflict in the region — and as U.S. and Israeli negotiators prepared to travel to Qatar in the coming days to resume talks for a cease-fire with Hamas.
‘This is a war crime’
In Lebanon, the Beirut-based pan-Arab network Al-Mayadeen TV said two of its journalists — camera operator Ghassan Najar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida — were both killed in an Israeli strike that hit a compound housing journalists in the country’s southeast in the early hours of Friday morning.
Photos from the scene showed burned-out cars marked “PRESS” covered in rubble.
Broadcaster Al-Manar, which is owned by Iran-backed militant and political group Hezbollah, said its camera operator Wissam Qassim was also killed in the strike, which took place in the Hasbaya region.
Lebanon’s health ministry said another three media workers were also injured in the attack, which the ministry confirmed had killed had three, adding to a death toll of more than 2,500 people in the country since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah began last year.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike.
Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary accused Israel of intentionally targeting the journalists in an attack he said amounted to a “war crime.”
“The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists’ night break to betray them in their sleep,” Makary said in a post on X. “This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists present at the location representing seven media institutions. This is a war crime,” he said.
The deadly strike comes as Israel faces mounting accusations of intentionally targeting journalists in Gaza, which it denies.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 128 journalists have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s yearlong offensive in the enclave. CPJ has warned that more journalists were killed in the first 10 weeks of Israel’s offensive in Gaza than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year.
Earlier this week, the Israel Defense Forces named six journalists working with Al Jazeera, saying they had been “exposed as Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.” CPJ responded to the claim saying Israel has “repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence.”
The network has also denied the accusations as “a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region.”
Dozens killed in Khan Younis and chaos at northern Gaza hospital
Meanwhile, in Gaza, the health ministry said that 38 people had been killed and dozens injured in Israeli strikes on the southern city of Khan Younis. It also said that Israeli forces had “stormed and are present inside” the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia as they continued a deadly assault on the enclave’s north,.
The health ministry said hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced Palestinians who had sought shelter at the hospital amid widespread Israeli strikes in northern Gaza had been detained by Israeli forces.
“The situation inside the hospital is catastrophic in every sense of the word,” the health ministry said.
The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News on the situation at the hospital Friday morning.
Israel has waged a weekslong ramped up offensive in northern Gaza, where the United Nations has warned of a spiraling humanitarian crisis as access to food, water and other vital supplies dwindle.
More than 600 people have been killed in the offensive, according to local health officials.
The IDF said Friday that its forces were continuing their assault on the Jabalia refugee camp, from which thousands of people have fled amid heavy airstrikes. It said its troops were also active in both southern and central Gaza, where Israeli forces launched a deadly strike Thursday on a school in the area of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
At least 18 people were killed and 30 injured in the strike, with children and women among the casualties, Dr. Mohammed Al-Mughair of Gaza’s Civil Defense agency told NBC News.
Al-Mughair said the strike appeared to target a prayer hall inside the school, which he said housed a large number of displaced families.
The IDF said its forces were targeting Hamas militants operating inside a “command and control center” in the school compound. The IDF did not say whether any Hamas members were killed in the strike, but said it “makes great efforts to prevent harming uninvolved civilians.”
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