100,000 residents trapped in Israel's north Gaza offensive

Israeli tanks thrust deeper Monday into two north Gaza towns and a historic refugee camp, trapping around 100,000 civilians. The Gaza Strip's health ministry said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment Monday, 13 of them in the north of the devastated coastal territory.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies.

The emergency service said its operations had come to a halt because of the three-week Israeli assault into the north.

North Gaza's three major hospitals, whose officials refused Israel's orders to evacuate, said they were hardly operating. At least two had been damaged by Israeli fire during the assault and run out of medical, food and fuel stocks.

North Gaza residents said Israeli forces were besieging schools and other shelters housing displaced families, ordering them out before rounding up men and pushing women and children to leave the area for Gaza City and points in the south.

More than 43,020 Palestinians have been killed and 101,110 injured in Israel's military offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement Monday.

Gaza's war has kindled wider conflict in the Middle East, raising concern about global oil supplies, with Israel carrying out bombings across Lebanon and sending forces into its south in an offensive to disable Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.

It has also triggered rare direct clashes between regional arch-foes Israel and Iran. At the weekend, Israeli warplanes pounded missile production sites in Iran in retaliation for an Oct. 1 Iranian missile volley at Israel.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said yesterday Tehran would "use all available tools" to respond to Israel's weekend attack.

Israel continued battering Lebanon, including an early-morning airstrike on a district in the southern port of Tyre that left seven dead, the Lebanese health ministry said.

The Israeli military later issued an evacuation order for large swathes of Tyre, including areas that have not been previously asked to evacuate and that included neighbourhoods near a seaside hotel where journalists are usually based.

In an update, the Israeli military said it bombed Hezbollah anti-tank missile depots and other arms assets in Tyre for the second time in several days.

Israel's expanding evacuation warnings have made ghost towns out of much of southern Lebanon, including Tyre, and the bombing campaign has left many towns along the border in ruins.

Hezbollah carried out a string of attacks on Israeli troops within Lebanese territory and on military targets within Israel. It said it had struck a military equipment factory southeast of Acre, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.