At least 22 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza’s Beit Lahiya

Israeli strikes on Gaza’s northern town of Beit Lahiya killed at least 22 people including women and children, Palestinian officials said on Oct 27, as the Israeli offensive in the hard-hit and isolated north entered its third week.

The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service in a statement said that 11 women and two children were among those killed in the strikes late Oct 26 on several homes and buildings in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

At least 15 people were wounded in strikes and the death toll could rise, according to the ministry.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct 26 condemned the attack on Beit Lahiya.

“The brutal crime carried out by the terrorist occupation army in Beit Lahiya … represents one of the most horrific forms of genocide and forced displacement known in modern times,” said the statement.

“This crime is a continuation of the ongoing massacres against our people in northern Gaza, without the world moving to stop them.” It added.

Hamas blamed Washington and what it called complicit capitals responsible for the “ongoing massacres and extermination” in northern Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued an urgent warning on Oct 27, instructing residents of multiple villages in southern Lebanon to vacate the area without delay. The IDF cautioned that it intends to carry out strikes against Hezbollah positions in the region.

In an X post, Avichay Adraee, an IDF spokesperson, listed over a dozen villages in south Lebanon and emphasized, "For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Awali River."

Also on Oct 27, IDF in a brief statement said that four soldiers, including a military rabbi, have been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, without providing details about the circumstances. It said five other personnel were severely wounded.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a statement on Oct 26 said Israeli strikes on the country over the weekend “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,”. He said Iran was carefully weighing its response to the attack.

“It is up to the authorities to determine how to convey the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and to take actions that serve the interests of this nation and country,” Khamenei said.

Israeli warplanes attacked military targets in Iran on Oct 26 in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

Pertinently, the exchange of fire has raised fears of an all-out regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant proxies – Hamas and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion earlier this month after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Oct 27 said that the strikes “severely harmed” Iran and achieved all of Israel’s goals.
“The air force struck throughout Iran. We severely harmed Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed toward us,” Netanyahu said in a post on X.

"We promised we would respond to the Iranian attack and on Oct 26 we struck. The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, achieving all of its objectives," Netanyahu said in a separate statement.

"The regime must understand one simple thing," he continued, "Whoever harms us, we will harm them," he added.

Meanwhile, a truck slammed into a bus at a stop as Israelis were returning to work after a weeklong holiday, leaving some people stuck under the vehicles on Oct 27, according to media reports. Besides being near the Mossad headquarters and a military base, the bus stop is also close to a central highway junction.

Asi Aharoni, an Israeli police spokesperson told reporters that authorities were treating it as a terror attack. He said the attacker had been “neutralized” and that police are working with Israel's internal security agency to determine the identity of the attacker.
Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service official was quoted as saying six of the wounded were in serious condition.

Notably, Hamas and Hezbollah have carried out scores of stabbings, shootings, and car-ramming attacks over the years. Tensions have soared since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, as Israel has carried out scores of military raids and attacks that have left hundreds dead mostly in northern Gaza.