Middle East latest: 2 children and a woman crushed to death outside Gaza bakery amid food shortage

Two children and a woman were crushed to death Friday as a crowd of Palestinians pushed to get bread at a bakery in the Gaza Strip amid a worsening food crisis in the war-ravaged territory, medical officials said.

The bodies of two girls aged 13 and 17 and the 50-year-old woman were taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where a doctor confirmed that they died from suffocation due to crowding at the al-Banna bakery. Video from The Associated Press showed their bodies placed next to each other on the floor inside the hospital’s morgue.

The flow of food allowed into Gaza by Israel has fallen to nearly its lowest level of almost 14-month-old war for the past two months, according to Israeli official figures. U.N. and aid officials say hunger and desperation are growing among Gaza’s population, almost all of which relies on humanitarian aid to survive.

Osama Abu Laban, the father of one of the girls, wailed over the loss of her life outside the hospital.

“My wife fell when she heard that she (our daughter) was suffocating. She did not yet know that she was dead,” he told the AP.

Some bakeries in Gaza were closed for several days last week due to a shortage of flour. AP footage taken last week after they reopened showed large crowds of people cramming together, screaming and pushing, at one bakery in Deir al-Balah.

Palestinians across the Gaza Strip are heavily relying on bakeries and charitable kitchens, with many able to only secure one meal a day for their families.

In Lebanon, thousands of displaced people began returning to their homes this week after a ceasefire was announced between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group.

Many found their homes reduced to rubble after intense Israeli airstrikes over the past two months leveled entire neighborhoods in eastern and southern Lebanon, as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut. Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced.

The truce was the first major sign of progress in the region since war began more than a year ago, triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But it does not address the devastating war in Gaza. For Palestinians in Gaza and families of hostages held in the territory, the ceasefire marked another missed opportunity to end fighting that has stretched on for nearly 14 months.

More than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million people.

Here’s the Latest:

Hezbollah again starts holding public funerals for its fallen fighters

MAARAKEH, Lebanon — Hezbollah held a public funeral in a southern village on Friday for five of its fighters killed during the fighting with Israel. It was the first time the Lebanese militant group held a public funeral since after the war intensified in late September.

“My son is in heaven,” said Zeinab al-Haj holding a bag or roses to toss them on the coffin of her son Ali Hijazi during the ceremony in the village of Maarakeh. Hijazi died of wounds suffered in an airstrike last week.

Hezbollah’s last public funeral was held on Sept. 27, the same day the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a southern Beirut’s suburb.

“We are people who are proud of their martyrs,” said Hezbollah’s media chief in south Lebanon Salman Harb. “Our martyrs are the symbol of our victory by all means.”

After a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on Wednesday, the group began announcing again its fallen fighters. More funerals are expected in the coming days including the funeral of three more fighters in Maarakeh on Saturday.

Hezbollah had announced the death of nearly 500 fighters before Sept. 23, when the war intensified. Since late September, Hezbollah is believed to have lost hundreds of fighters whose funerals will be held whenever their bodies are recovered.

Hezbollah is also expected to hold a funeral for Nasrallah and other top officials, including his successor Hashem Safieddine who was killed in an airstrike in early October.

Hezbollah chief says the group agreed to the ceasefire deal ‘from a position of strength’

BEIRUT — Hezbollah chief Naim Kassem said on Friday that the militant group will coordinate closely with the Lebanese military to implement the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement with Israel that followed nearly 14 months of intense fighting.

He also claimed that with the deal, Hezbollah achieved “a great victory that surpasses the victory of July 2006,” the last time the Iran-backed group was at war with Israel.

“The ceasefire agreement aligns with Lebanese sovereignty and we have accepted it from a position of strength,” he asserted, speaking in a pre-recorded message from an undisclosed location on the third day of the ceasefire.

Kassem added there would be no confrontation between Hezbollah fighters and the Lebanese Army. “Don’t bet on any disagreement or friction between us and the army,” he said. “The army will be deploying in its country, which is also ours.”

Kassem also pledged Hezbollah will help “with rebuilding and cooperate with the state and all organizations and countries willing to assist Lebanon, aiming to make Lebanon more beautiful than it was.”

The World Bank estimates that Lebanon’s financial losses from the conflict — which was initially limited to the border but escalated dramatically in mid-September —exceed $8 billion, further straining a country already reeling from a series of cascading crises since 2019.

Israeli military says it struck a site of a Hezbollah rocket launcher in southern Lebanon

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said it struck an area in southern Lebanon where it detected movement of a Hezbollah rocket launcher on Friday, the third day of the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.

In the statement on the airstrike, the military said it would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”

The strike followed several Israeli military attacks in southern Lebanon earlier in the day, which were reported by the Lebanese state media, and an Israeli drone strike on a Hezbollah weapons depot on Thursday.

There was no immediate comment from the Lebanese army, which has accused Israel of breaking the ceasefire several times since it came into effect.

Hamas claims attack on Israeli bus in West Bank that wounded 8 people, including 4 soldiers

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Hamas claimed responsibility for a shooting attack on an Israeli bus in the occupied West Bank on Friday that wounded eight people, including four soldiers.

It was the latest violence to scar the territory as tensions run high 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war.

The attacker, who Hamas identified in a statement as Samer Hussein, 46, was killed by Israeli troops shortly after opening fire toward the bus at a junction near the Israeli settlement of Ariel.

The military said four soldiers were lightly wounded. Paramedics said three people were critically wounded.

Attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis in the volatile territory have grown more common since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, as Palestinian deaths have also spiked. Israeli fire has killed 796 Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023, mostly in military raids on Palestinian cities and towns. Attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their property have also increased.

Lebanon’s state media says Israel carried out several attacks in the south

BEIRUT — The Israeli army carried out several attacks in southern Lebanon on Friday, the third day of the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanon’s state media said.

Artillery bombardment struck the villages of Markaba, Talusa and Khiyam while four Israeli tanks moved into the western part of Khiyam, the report said, adding that an Israeli tank fired at a house in Nabatiyeh province.

Local media also reported that the Israeli army fired on civilians in the nearby village of Bint Jbeil. No casualties were immediately reported and The Associated Press was not immediately able to verify the claims.

Israel’s and Lebanon’s armies did not comment on the alleged attacks.

Lebanon politician calls on Hezbollah to work with Lebanese army

BEIRUT — The leader of a leading Christian political party in Lebanon has called on Hezbollah to engage with the Lebanese army and devise a plan to dismantle its military infrastructure south and north of the Litani river.

In a press conference Friday, Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces Party, criticized Hezbollah for opening a front with Israel and accused the Shiite militant group of committing a “major crime” against the Lebanese people.

“We could have done without the martyrdom of more than 4,000 people, the displacement of thousands and the destruction across the country,” Geagea said. “Despite all these tragedies, Hezbollah continues to talk about a victory using a bizarre and disconnected logic that has no basis in reality.”

Geagea’s comments came two days after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel went into effect. More than 3,900 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah escalated.

Geagea, whose Lebanese Forces Party holds the largest bloc in Lebanon’s 128-member parliament, also addressed Lebanon’s presidential deadlock. The country has been without a president for more than two years.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has scheduled a session for presidential elections in January. “Consultations with opposition factions and our allies will begin in the coming days to explore the possibility of agreeing on presidential candidates and bringing them to parliament,” Geagea said.

2 children and a woman crushed to death outside Gaza bakery

Two children and a 50-year-old woman were crushed to death Friday as a crowd of Palestinians pushed to get bread at a bakery in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, medical officials said.

The flow of food allowed into Gaza by Israel has fallen to nearly its lowest level of the almost 14-month-old war for the past two months, according to Israeli official figures. U.N. and aid officials say hunger and desperation are growing among Gaza’s population, almost all of which relies on humanitarian aid to survive.

A doctor at Al-Aqsa Hospital confirmed that the three died from suffocation due to crowding at the al-Banna bakery in Deir al-Balah.

Some bakeries in Gaza were closed for several days last week due to a shortage of flour. AP footage taken last week after they reopened showed large crowds of people cramming together, screaming and pushing, at one bakery in Deir al-Balah. Bags of bread now sell in the black market near bakeries for up to $17 each.

Palestinians across the Gaza Strip are heavily relying on bakeries and charitable kitchens, with many able to only secure one meal a day for their families.

Osama Abu Laban, the father of one of the girls killed Friday, wailed over the loss of her life outside the hospital.

“My wife fell when she heard that she (our daughter) was suffocating. She did not yet know that she was dead,” he told the AP. He added that he had also lost his son, father, uncle, and cousins, all in northern Gaza.

Several women gathered inside the morgue to mourn their dead relatives, with one woman screaming “they went to buy bread, they crushed them.”

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Read more of the AP’s coverage of the Middle East wars: https://apnews.com/hub/mideast-wars

The Associated Press