Gaza residents return to rubble – Lebanon reports retired officer killed
After Israeli strikes in central Gaza, residents found their homes destroyed. In southern Lebanon, the army says a retired officer was killed by Israeli fire.
Archive image · Photo: Photo by Mahmoud Fareed \ WAFA (Q2915969) in contract with a local company (APAimages) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Residents of central Gaza returned to their neighbourhoods on Sunday to assess damage from Israeli strikes after the army issued evacuation warnings the day before. One resident, Bassam Abed, told the Associated Press that at least ten residential buildings housing some 300 families had been reduced to rubble. "Women slept outdoors. We did not take clothes," he said. The Israeli military said it had targeted a rocket launch site and a command centre used by Hamas.
A year after the ceasefire with Hamas, Israel continues to carry out near-daily strikes in Gaza. According to the Times of Israel, the army also said it had killed a commander of Hamas's Nukhba unit who allegedly helped lead the 7 October 2023 raid on a military base. In Zawaida, in the centre of the territory, Palestinians on Sunday inspected a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike. Claims by both sides cannot be independently verified.
In southern Lebanon, a retired officer was killed while checking on his property in the village of Yater, the Lebanese army said. He was "directly targeted by a hostile Israeli tank", the army said. An Israeli military spokesperson said they were not aware of the incident. Israel has occupied a large swath of southern Lebanon since its war with Hezbollah began in March.