Middle East latest: Israel issues evacuation warning for the entire Baalbek city in eastern Lebanon

The Israeli army has issued an evacuation warning for residents in the entire eastern Lebanese city of Baalbeck, along with surrounding areas and key routes in the Bekaa Valley

Middle East latest: Israel issues evacuation warning for the entire Baalbek city in eastern LebanonBy The Associated PressThe Associated Press

The Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for residents in the entire eastern Lebanese city of Baalbeck, along with surrounding areas and key routes in the Bekaa Valley. The area marked for evacuation includes the ancient Roman temple complex, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Lebanon’s Heath Ministry said more than 2,790 people have been killed and 12,700 wounded since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.

Multiple United Nations agencies rallied Tuesday around their fellow organization, UNRWA, that provides aid to Palestinian refugees, after Israel’s parliament took steps to ban it in the coming months. The foreign ministers of Cyprus and Luxembourg say the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees is “indispensable” to providing food, education and health care to Palestinians. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry called Israel’s decision a “clear violation of international law.”

United States President Joe Biden’s administration says it is seeking an explanation from Israel about its attack Tuesday on a town in northern Gaza that Palestinians say killed at least 88 people, including dozens of women and children.

The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported Monday, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.

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Here’s the latest:

Israeli military says Tuesday’s strike on Gaza building was targeted

JERUSALEM — An Israeli military official says the target of Tuesday’s attack on a five-story building that Gaza health officials reported resulted in scores of deaths was a spotter with binoculars in the building, and that the intent was not to destroy the structure.

The military official agreed to provide details only on condition of anonymity, citing military protocol and the ongoing investigation into the incident.

The official said Wednesday the building was not known to be a shelter for civilians, and that it collapsed as a result of the strike on the spotter.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday that at least 70 people were killed in the first of two strikes on the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, and that more than half of the victims were women and children. The Israeli military had earlier said it was investigating the strike. The Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty tolls do not differentiate between civilians and militant fighters.

The official said there were discrepancies between the numbers of victims reported by authorities in Gaza and what Israeli intelligence indicates, and that the victims included known militants. The official did not provide detailed evidence to support that assertion.

The Israeli military has repeatedly struck shelters for displaced people in recent months. It says it carries out precise strikes targeting Palestinian militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but the strikes often kill women and children.

—By Adam Schreck

Israeli hospital officials say rocket from Lebanon wounded 2

JERUSALEM — Hospital officials in Israel say a rocket fired from Lebanon has wounded two men, one seriously.

The men were wounded by rocket shrapnel on Wednesday in Metula, an Israeli town just across the border from Lebanon, said a spokesperson for the Rambam Hospital, where they were airlifted.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets into Israel since Oct. 8, 2023, when it opened fire in solidarity with Hamas a day after its cross-border attack from the Gaza Strip. All-out war erupted last month, when Israel carried out large waves of airstrikes and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his senior commanders. Israel launched a ground invasion at the start of October.

Israel issues an evacuation warning for the entire Baalbek city in eastern Lebanon

BEIRUT — For the first time in the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah war, the Israeli army has issued an evacuation warning for residents in the entire eastern city of Baalbek, along with surrounding areas and key routes in the Bekaa Valley.

Earlier Wednesday, a drone strike targeted a van on Lebanon’s Aaraya highway, a major road linking Beirut to the Bekaa, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Lebanese capital, resulting in flames, according to Lebanese state media. Another vehicle in Bchamoun, roughly 10 kilometers (6 miles) southeast of Beirut, was also targeted, as reported by the state-run National News Agency. This is the first time in the conflict that the area is targeted.

The number of casualties and the intended targets were not yet known.

The area marked in Wednesday’s evacuation order includes the ancient Roman temple complex, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. On Oct. 6, an Israeli strike hit some 700 meters (750 yards) away from the ancient citadel, which houses two of the largest Roman temples in the world.

Norway wants clarity on Israel’s obligation to Palestinians under international law

OSLO, Norway — Norway is asking for a clarification on Israel’s responsibility under international law when preventing the United Nations, international humanitarian organizations and states from helping Palestinians.

“The international community cannot accept that the U.N., international humanitarian organizations and states face systematic obstacles to being able to work in Palestine and provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians under occupation,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Wednesday. “It undermines the Palestinians’ right to vital aid. Then we have to react.”

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA, provides essential services to millions of Palestinians across the Middle East and has underpinned aid efforts in Gaza throughout the Israel-Hamas war. Legislation barring it from operating in Israel passed with an overwhelming majority Monday. Israel says UNRWA has allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas, with the militants siphoning off aid and using the agency’s facilities as shields. UNRWA denies the allegations, saying it is committed to neutrality and acts quickly to address any wrongdoing by its staff.

Norway has called for a resolution in the U.N. General Assembly that asks the International Court of Justice “to give an advisory opinion on the duties of Israel as an occupying power to facilitate aid to the population of Palestine.” Gahr Støre added that a number of countries have expressed support for the initiative, in addition to UNRWA.

Under international law, Israel has an obligation to help the Palestinian population under occupation, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said.

“With this initiative, Norway wants to establish that no country can rise above its obligations under international law,” Barth Eide said. “We see similar trends in other countries — that leaders try to undermine humanitarian law and aid work in situations of crisis and conflict. We must stop this development.”