Up to 93 people killed in Israeli strike in northern Gaza, local officials say, as Hezbollah elects new leader

The United States has asked Israel to explain a "horrifying" strike in northern Gaza, in which it is claimed as many as 93 Palestinians have been killed and dozens missing and wounded. 

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday the US was seeking more information on which he called a "horrifying incident with a horrifying result". 

While reports on fatalities vary, upwards of 70 people have been killed after an Israeli strike on a residential building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya and many more remain unaccounted-for.

A Gaza health ministry official told Reuters that up to 93 Palestinians were killed.

"The number of martyrs in the massacre of the Abu Nasr family home in Beit Lahia has risen to 93 martyrs, and about 40 are still missing under the rubble," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP in an updated toll up from 60 people.

Medics said that at least 20 children were among the dead. 

Washington contacted Israeli officials and "made clear we want to know exactly what happened", Mr Miller said. 

The incident was a reminder of why the US wants to see a ceasefire to bring an end to the conflict, he said, arguing that was in Israel's interest.

At least 10 additional people were killed in an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Sarafand, most of whom were women and children, the town's mayor told Reuters late on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah has announced it has selected Naim Qassem as the new leader of the Lebanese terror group. 

He succeeds Hasan Nasrallah who was killed in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.

"Hezbollah's [governing] Shura Council agreed to elect … Sheikh Naim Qassem as secretary-general of Hezbollah," the Iran-backed group said in a statement on Tuesday, more than a month after Nasrallah's killing.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday the election of Qassem as the new chief Hezbollah is "temporary".

"Temporary appointment. Not for long," he posted on X.

Qassem, 71, was one of Hezbollah's founders in 1982. He has been the party's deputy secretary-general since 1991, the year before Nasrallah took the helm.

He was born in Beirut in 1953 to a family from the village of Kfar Fila on the border with Israel.

Deadliest single attack in nearly three months

The UN Human Rights Office said it was "appalled" by one of the deadliest single attacks in nearly three months, calling for a prompt, transparent investigation into the circumstances.

AFP reported the Israeli military as saying it was "looking into the reports".

The health ministry said those wounded in the strike could not receive care because doctors had been forced to evacuate the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital. 

"Critical cases without intervention will succumb to their destiny and die," the ministry said in a statement.

However, hospital director Hussam Abu Safia told AFP 35 wounded people, most of them children, were being treated at the hospital.

He also said the bodies of 15 people killed in the strike were brought to the hospital.

"We are still receiving a number of martyrs and wounded," he said, adding that the hospital was struggling to treat patients due to a lack of staff and medicines.

"There is nothing left in the Kamal Adwan Hospital except first aid materials after the army arrested our medical team and workers when they invaded the hospital during the military operation in Jabalia," Safia said.

On Monday, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said about 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies. 

Reuters could not verify the number independently.

The emergency service said its operations had come to a halt because of the three-week Israeli assault on northern Gaza, where Israel had said it wiped out Hamas combat forces earlier in the year-long war.

Israel said the raid was aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping.

Lebanese media says Israeli tanks have entered outskirts of Khiam

Lebanese state media said on Tuesday that Israeli tanks had rolled into the outskirts of the village of Khiam, their deepest incursion yet into south Lebanon in the ground operation launched last month.

The official National News Agency reported the entry of "a large number of tanks belonging to the Israeli occupation army" into the eastern outskirts of Khiam, some six kilometres from the border with Israel.

Meanwhile Austria's Defence Ministry said eight soldiers belonging to the UN peace-keeping force United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) sustained slight and superficial injuries in a rocket strike on Camp Naqoura near the Israeli border.

"We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms and demand that it be investigated immediately," the ministry said in a statement, adding that it was not clear where the attack came from and none of the soldiers needed urgent medical care.

UNICEF says banning UNRWA is a new way to 'kill children'

Israel's parliament passed a law to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from operating inside the country, alarming some of Israel's Western allies which fear it will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said UNRWA workers must be held accountable for what he called "terrorist activities" against Israel.

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who has worked extensively in Gaza since the October 7 war began, said: "If UNRWA is unable to operate, it'll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza.

"So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children."

Other UN agencies at the same briefing said it would be impossible to fill the void. 

"It is indispensable and there is no alternative to it at this point," said UN humanitarian office spokesperson Jens Laerke.

In response to a question about whether the ban represented a form of collective punishment against people in Gaza, he said: "I think it is a fair description of what they have decided here, if implemented, that this would add to the acts of collective punishment that we have seen imposed on Gaza."

The head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it could not replace UNRWA in Gaza but that it could provide more relief to those in crisis.

"That is a role that we are very, very keen to play, and one that we will be stepping up with the support of various stakeholders," IOM Director-General Amy Pope said.

AFP/Reuters