Lebanese reports claim four people were killed within the country’s borders in an Israeli airstrike on a car. Meanwhile, a telecommunications company in the besieged enclave has said communications are once again down in Gaza.
Gaza has fallen under its third total communications outage since the Israel-Hamas war began, while three children and their grandmother have been killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a car, according to a Lebanese official and local media.
The “new collapse in connectivity” across Gaza was reported by internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org and confirmed by Palestinian telecom company Paltel.
Meanwhile in Lebanon, the state-owned National News Agency and Ali Safieddine, the head of the civil defence in the Tyre district, reported an Israeli strike targeted a car in southern Lebanon, between the villages of Aynata and Aitaroun.
One woman and three children, aged 10, 12 and 14, were killed and others were wounded, the news agency said, while a Hezbollah politician said the woman was their grandmother. Sky News has not been able to verify the report.
Follow live: Internet services ‘completely cut off again’ across Gaza
Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah described the alleged attack as a “dangerous development”, warning Israel would pay a price.
The militant group said it fired multiple grad rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona in retaliation for the strike.
Lebanon will submit a complaint to the United Nations over the killings, the country’s foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib said.
Mr Bou Habib told Reuters Lebanon was collecting information and pictures and will likely submit its complaint on Monday.
Israel’s military also claimed on Sunday evening an Israeli was killed in an attack by Hezbollah.
Israel’s army spokesperson gave no details about the reported attack but said the military operates based on intelligence information and examines every event in Lebanon thoroughly.
Israel’s forces have been exchanging with Iran-backed Hezbollah across the border in the north of the country since Hamas’s attack on 7 October.
Other key developments:
• Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf’s parents-in-law have arrived in Scotland after fleeing Gaza;
• Israeli minister reportedly suspended after suggesting atomic bomb on Gaza is an option;
• Boris Johnson meets Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem to “express solidarity”;
• Lebanon’s ambassador to the UK claims Israel has used white phosphorus in southern Lebanon.
Gaza: How is the IDF progressing?
Meanwhile the communications outage in Gaza has made it even more complicated to share details on the latest stage of Israel’s military offensive.
“We have lost communication with the vast majority of the UNRWA team members,” UN Palestinian refugee agency spokesperson Juliette Touma told The Associated Press.
Palestinian telecoms company Paltel said: “The main routes that were previously reconnected (were) cut off again from the Israeli side.”
The first outage in Gaza lasted 36 hours, while the second only lasted a few hours.
It comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his warning that there will be no ceasefire until hostages held by Hamas are returned, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the West Bank on Sunday.
In the offensive’s latest developments, the Israeli military claimed it has exposed a network of Hamas tunnels and rocket launchers beneath and next to hospitals in northern Gaza.
By Sunday evening, Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel said all communications and internet services are down again within the Gaza Strip.
Mr Blinken later held a news conference in Baghdad in which he said he had a productive meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani and also made “very clear” the attacks coming from militia aligned with Iran are “unacceptable”.
“We had a good candid conversation and more broadly we are working hard to make sure the conflict in Gaza does not escalate to other places,” he said.
Earlier in the day Mr Blinken met the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the city of Ramallah on Sunday, as he continued his tour of the region.
Mr Abbas demanded an “immediate ceasefire” to allow humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, which Israel continues to bombard in response to Hamas’s attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October.
“We demand that you stop them from committing these crimes immediately,” Mr Abbas told Mr Blinken, according to a spokesperson.
Earlier on Sunday, Hamas, which has run Gaza independently of the Palestinian Authority since 2007, claimed an Israeli airstrike killed at least 47 people in the Maghazi refugee camp.
Violence has continued in the West Bank, with 121 Palestinians killed there since the war in Gaza began, according to UN figures.
Demonstrators call for ceasefire
Israel’s siege of Gaza has also stirred global alarm at humanitarian conditions, with pro-Palestinian demonstrators protesting around the world on Saturday.
Demonstrations were held in cities including London, Berlin, Paris, Istanbul and Jakarta, with hundreds of thousands calling for a ceasefire.
Protests were held around the world
There was also a protest in Washington to denounce President Joe Biden’s war policy and demand a ceasefire.
The Hamas-run health ministry has said 21 Palestinians from the same family were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza overnight.
Read more:
Inside Gaza with Israeli troops vowing to ‘make Hamas pay for what they did’
How much influence does Biden’s America have over its ally?
It said in a post on its Facebook page that they belonged to the family of Abu Hasira and that the strike targeted a house that was “full of women and children”.
Sky News has not independently verified the claim.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
