Ongoing warfare renders Gaza 'uninhabitable,' warns UN

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The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Israel bombed southern Gaza yesterday as the UN warned the besieged Palestinian territory has been rendered "uninhabitable" by three months of war.

The fighting, triggered by the October 7 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas, has sent tensions soaring across the region, and shows no signs of abating with the conflict entering its fourth month on Sunday.

With swathes of the territory already reduced to rubble, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Friday that "Gaza has simply become uninhabitable".

On Israel's northern border, Lebanon's Hezbollah group said it launched on Saturday its "initial response" to the killing of Hamas's deputy chief in Beirut, which a US defence official has told AFP was carried out by Israel.

The Iran-backed group said it had targeted the Israeli military's Meron air control base with 62 missiles, while the Israeli army reported "approximately 40 launches from Lebanon" early Saturday, with sirens blaring in the Galilee region.

Contacted by AFP, a military spokesperson confirmed the mountaintop base had been targeted but did not say whether it was damaged.

No casualties were reported in Israel.

The Hamas-allied Lebanese movement has been trading near-daily fire with Israeli forces since early October and said the barrage was a response to Tuesday's killing of Saleh al-Aruri in a strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

The army said it had struck Hezbollah "military sites" in response.

Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said late Friday that Israeli forces were maintaining a "very high state of readiness" along the border with Lebanon following Aruri's killing, which Israel has not claimed.