Middle East latest: Two Hamas officials killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon

An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon has killed Hamas official Saeed Atallah Ali and his family, the militant group said Saturday. Hamas later said another military wing member was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.

The strikes come a day after another Israeli airstrike cut off a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, leaving two huge craters on either side of the road.

Israel began a ground incursion Tuesday into Lebanon against the Hezbollah militant group. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the one-year mark, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.

Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest conflict, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Here is the latest:

DEAIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An apparent Israeli airstrike early Sunday killed at least 18 people in central Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said.

The strike hit a mosque sheltering displaced people near the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah, the hospital said in a statement.

An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead were all men. Another two men were critically wounded, the hospital said.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment about the strike on the mosque.

The latest strikes add to the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which is now nearing 42,000 according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, but many of the dead were women and children.

Powerful new explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs late Saturday as Israel expanded its bombardment in Lebanon, also striking a Palestinian refugee camp deep in the north for the first time as it targeted both Hezbollah and Hamas fighters.

Thousands of people in Lebanon, including Palestinian refugees, continued to flee the widening conflict in the region, while rallies were held around the world marking the approaching anniversary of the start of the war in Gaza.

The strong explosions began near midnight after Israel’s military urged residents to evacuate areas in Beirut’s Haret Hreik and Choueifat neighborhoods. AP video showed the blasts illuminating the densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. They followed a day of sporadic strikes and the nearly continuous buzz of reconnaissance drones.

Israel’s military confirmed it was striking targets near Beirut and said about 30 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.

TEL AVIV — The Israeli military says its troops have located and destroyed a 250-meter-long Hezbollah tunnel in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border.

The army said Saturday that troops uncovered command centers, combat packs and a large number of weapons in the tunnel. There were also living quarters equipped with showers, a kitchen and stockpiles of food. The army says the tunnel did not cross into Israeli territory.

The military says it has been carrying out ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon for days, destroying missiles, launchpads, weapons storage facilities and multiple tunnel shafts that it says Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.

RIO DE JANEIRO — A plane chartered by the Brazilian Air Force has left Beirut for Brazil carrying 229 passengers including 10 infants.

Brazil’s foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday that three pets are also on the flight headed for Sao Paulo — Brazil’s first flight evacuating nationals from Lebanon. The ministry says it was supposed to leave Friday but was stalled due to security reasons.

It says a second flight is scheduled for next week, depending on security conditions on the ground.

Two Brazilian adolescents have been killed by Israeli bombardments in Lebanon, which is home to the largest community of Brazilians in the Middle East at around 21,000.

DAMASCUS, Syria — Iran’s foreign minister says some countries are making efforts to broker cease-fires in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Damascus that “we are trying to reach a cease-fire in Gaza and in Lebanon.”

The minister did not name the countries involved, describing them as regional states and some from outside the Middle East. He declined to provide details, saying the efforts are still “ideas.”

Araghchi says any proposal should be accepted by the Palestinian and Lebanese sides and once that happens Iran and Syria would back them.

He also reiterated that Iran will retaliate to any Israeli attack, warning it would be “stronger, and they can test our will.”

JERUSALEM — Rocket alert sirens have been blaring all day in northern Israel.

The Israeli military says some 90 projectiles have been fired Saturday from Lebanon into Israel.

Most were intercepted or fell in open areas, but several rockets fell in the northern Arab town of Deir al-Asad, where police said three people were lightly injured, and in the nearby city of Karmiel, damaging an apartment building.

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — A Slovak government plane has landed in the capital Bratislava carrying 46 people who were evacuated from Lebanon.

The Slovak Foreign Ministry says another plane carrying 44 people is expected later Saturday.

The ministry says 34 Slovaks are among them, as well nationals from other European countries.

The Czech Foreign Ministry says 10 Czechs and three relatives with Lebanese passports will be on the second flight.

They were first evacuated from Beirut to Larnaca in Cyprus by military transport plane before traveling to Bratislava on the government plane.

BEIRUT — Hamas says one of its members was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.

The Palestinian militant group says Mohammed Lweis, who was a member of the group’s military wing the Qassam Brigade, was killed Saturday in an Israeli attack on the eastern Lebanese village of Fayda.

Hours earlier, Hamas announced the deaths of another member of its military wing, his wife and two daughters in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

Over the past year, Israel has killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon.

BEIRUT — A Syrian opposition war monitor and pro-government media are reporting that an Israeli drone strike on a car in central Syria killed one person and wounded three.

It was not immediately clear who was the target of Saturday’s airstrike near the central city of Hama, which was reported by the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and pro-government Sham FM radio. They did not give further details.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel regularly carries out airstrikes inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria but rarely acknowledges them. When it has, it says it targets Iranian-backed groups or Hezbollah weapons shipments.

BEIRUT — Nearly 375,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria, fleeing Israeli bombardment, in less than two weeks, Lebanese officials said.

The government's crisis management unit, citing figures from Lebanese General Security, said 374,621 people — Lebanese citizens and Syrians living in Lebanon — have crossed into Syria since Sept. 23, when Israel intensified its air bombardment campaign in Lebanon.

Thousands have continued to cross on foot through the main Masnaa Border Crossing even after Israeli airstrikes cut off the road leading up to it on Thursday.

Associated Press journalists on Saturday saw a nonstop stream of people walking through a huge crater created by the airstrike to waiting buses on the other side.

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian President Bashar Assad praised Iran for firing nearly 200 missiles at Israel earlier this week saying it was a message to Israel that Tehran and its allies “can deter the enemy.”

Assad spoke during a meeting with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday. In comments carried by state media, Assad said that “resisting occupation, aggression and mass killings is a legitimate right.”

Assad said the Iran-led alliance known as Axis of Resistance will remain strong because of the backing of its people.

Syrian state media said Assad and Araghchi discussed ending Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

Iran has been a main backer of Assad since Syria’s civil war began in March 2011.

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said on Saturday its special forces were carrying out ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launchpads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities. The military said troops also dismantled tunnel shafts that Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.

Some 1,400 Lebanese, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed and some 1.2 million driven from their homes since Israel escalated its strikes in late September aiming to cripple Hezbollah and push it away from the countries’ shared border. On Tuesday, Israel launched what it calls a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon.

Nine Israeli troops have been killed in close fighting in the area in the past few days, which is saturated with arms and explosives, the military said.

Israeli strikes in Lebanon have hit civilian areas and infrastructure including hospitals and paramedics.

BEIRUT — Beirut’s southern suburbs was hit by 12 Israeli airstrikes early Saturday, including one that badly damaged a large hall Hezbollah has used to hold ceremonies, Lebanon’s state news agency said.

Later in the day, more strikes hit the area, from which tens of thousands of people have fled over the past two weeks.

Israeli airstrikes also hit areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, according to state media. At least six people were killed, according to NNA.

CAIRO — Palestinian medical officials say Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza early Saturday have killed at least nine people, including two children.

One strike hit a group of people in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least five people, including two children, according to the Health Ministry’s Ambulance and Emergency service.

Another strike hit a house in the northern part of Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least four people, the Awda hospital said. The strike also left a number of wounded people, it said.

The Israeli military did not have any immediate comment on the strikes, but has long accused Hamas of operating from within civilian areas.

Almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the almost year-long war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.

CAIRO — The Israeli military on Saturday warned residents in parts of central Gaza to evacuate, saying its forces will soon operate there in response to Palestinian militants.

The warnings cover areas along a strategic corridor in central Gaza, which was at the heart of obstacles to a ceasefire deal earlier this summer. The military warned Palestinians in areas of Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps, located along the Netzarim corridor, to evacuate to an along Gaza's shore called Muwasi, which the military has designated a humanitarian zone. It’s unclear how many Palestinians are currently living in the areas affected by the order, parts of which were evacuated previously.

Less than an hour after the evacuation order, Palestinians reported Israel’s artillery shelling and smoke bombing in the northern areas of Nuseirat camp. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to heavily destroyed areas of Gaza where they fought earlier battles against Hamas and other militants since the start of the war one year ago.

The vast majority of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people has been displaced in the war, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps.

Others have remained in their homes despite being ordered to leave, saying nowhere in the isolated coastal territory feels safe.

BEIRUT — An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon has killed a Hamas official and his family, the militant group said Saturday.

Hamas said in a statement that the early Saturday strike on the Beddawi refugee camp struck the home of Saeed Atallah Ali, an official with Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades. Ali’s wife, Shaymaa Azzam, and their two daughters, Zeinab and Fatima — whom the statement described as children — were also killed in the attack.

Beddawi camp is near the northern city of Tripoli. It was the first such strike on the camp in the recent conflict.

Israel has killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023.

SEOUL, South Korea — A military plane evacuating 97 people from Lebanon arrived in South Korea on Saturday.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the group on the plane includes South Korean nationals and their family members. There are about 30 South Koreans left in Lebanon besides diplomats and embassy workers who are staying.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed officials Wednesday to send military aircraft to conflict areas in the Middle East as he called a meeting to discuss the impact of the intensified fighting in the region. There are about 480 South Korean nationals living in Israel and 110 in Iran.

Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout pro-Palestine and anti-Israel slogans during a protest in solidarity with Palestinians and against the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, at Mirgund north village of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

South Korean nationals and their family members arrive after being evacuated from Lebanon with a South Korea's military aircraft at the Seoul airport in Seongnam, South Korea, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (Korea Pool/Yonhap via AP)

Draped in the Hamas and Islamic Jihad flags, mourners take the last look at the bodies of 18 Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli airstrike during their funeral in Tulkarem, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout pro-Palestine and anti-Israel slogans during a protest in solidarity with Palestinians and against the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, at Mirgund north village of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s embattled president apologized Saturday for public anxiety caused by his short-lived attempt to impose martial law hours ahead of a parliamentary vote on impeaching him.

President Yoon Suk Yeol said in a brief televised address Saturday morning he won’t shirk legal or political responsibility for the declaration and promised not to make another attempt to impose it. He said he would leave it to his party to chart a course through the country's political turmoil, “including matters related to my term in office."

“The declaration of his martial law was made out of my desperation. But in the course of its implementation, it caused anxiety and inconveniences to the public. I feel very sorry over that and truly apologize to the people who must have been shocked a lot,” Yoon said.

Since taking office in 2022, Yoon, a conservative, has struggled to push his agenda through an opposition-controlled parliament and grappled with low approval ratings amid scandals involving himself and his wife. In his martial law announcement on Tuesday night, Yoon called parliament a “den of criminals” bogging down state affairs and vowed to eliminate “shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces.”

A National Assembly vote on an opposition-led motion to impeach Yoon is set for Saturday afternoon, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether the motion would get the two-thirds needed to pass. The opposition parties that jointly brought the impeachment motion control 192 of the legislature's 300 seats, meaning they need at least eight additional votes from Yoon's conservative People Power Party.

That appeared more likely after the chair of Yoon's party called for his removal on Friday, but the party remained formally opposed to impeachment.

If Yoon is impeached, his powers will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to remove him from office. If he is removed, an election to replace him must take place within 60 days.

The turmoil resulting from Yoon’s bizarre and poorly-thought-out stunt has paralyzed South Korean politics and sparked alarm among key diplomatic partners, including neighboring Japan and Seoul’s top ally the United States, as one of the strongest democracies in Asia faces a political crisis that could unseat its leader.

Tuesday night saw special forces troops encircling the parliament building and army helicopters hovering over it, but the military withdrew after the National Assembly unanimously voted to overturn the decree, forcing Yoon to lift it before daybreak Wednesday. The declaration of martial law was the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea.

Since then, thousands of people have protested in the streets of Seoul, waving banners, shouting slogans and dancing and singing along to K-pop songs with lyrics changed to call for Yoon’s ouster. Smaller groups of Yoon’s supporters rallied near the National Assembly Friday, holding signs that read “We oppose unconstitutional impeachment."

Opposition lawmakers say that Yoon’s attempt at martial law amounted to a self-coup and drafted the impeachment motion around rebellion charges.

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, told reporters that Yoon’s speech was “greatly disappointing” and that the only way forward is his immediate resignation or impeachment.

Parliament said Saturday that it would meet at 5 p.m. It will first vote on a bill appointing a special prosecutor to investigate influence peddling allegations surrounding Yoon’s wife, and then on impeaching Yoon.

It's not clear if members of Yoon's PPP will break ranks to vote for impeachment. Eighteen lawmakers from a minority faction of the party joined the unanimous vote to cancel martial law, which passed 190-0. However, the party has decided to oppose the impeachment.

Experts say the PPP fears Yoon's impeachment and possible removal from office would leave the conservatives in disarray and easily losing a presidential by-election to liberals.

On Friday, PPP chair Han Dong-hun, who also heads the minority faction that helped cancel martial law, called for suspending Yoon’s constitutional powers, describing him as unfit to hold the office and capable of taking more extreme actions. But Han is not a lawmaker and the party's position remains anti-impeachment.

Han said he had received intelligence that during the brief period of martial law Yoon ordered the country’s defense counterintelligence commander to arrest and detain unspecified key politicians based on accusations of “anti-state activities."

Following Yoon’s televised address, Han reiterated his call for him to step down, saying that the president wasn’t in a state where he could normally carry out official duties. “President Yoon Suk Yeol’s early resignation is inevitable,” Han told reporters.

Hong Jang-won, first deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, later told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Yoon called after imposing martial law and ordered him to help the defense counterintelligence unit to detain key politicians. The targeted politicians included Han, Lee and National Assembly speaker Woo Won Shik, according to Kim Byung-kee, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting.

The Defense Ministry said it had suspended the defense counterintelligence commander, Yeo In-hyung, who Han alleged had received orders from Yoon to detain the politicians. The ministry also suspended the commanders of the capital defense command and the special warfare command over their involvement in enforcing martial law.

Former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who has been accused of recommending Yoon to enforce martial law, has been placed under a travel ban and faces an investigation by prosecutors over rebellion charges.

Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon Ho has testified to parliament that it was Kim Yong Hyun who ordered troops to be deployed to the National Assembly after Yoon imposed martial law.

A man passes by screens showing the broadcast of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's announcement at the Yongsan Electronic store in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at the presidential office in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (South Korean Presidential Office/Yonhap via AP)

People watch TV screens showing the broadcast of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's announcement at a Yongsan Electronic store in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A man watches TV screens showing the broadcast of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's announcement at a Yongsan Electronic store in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

People watch a TV screen showing the live broadcast of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's announcement at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

People watch a TV screen showing the live broadcast of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's announcement at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

People watch a TV screen showing the live broadcast of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's announcement at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A woman watches a TV screen showing the live broadcast of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's announcement at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A man watches a TV screen showing the live broadcast of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's announcement at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A protester holds banner and shouts slogans against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

In this image made from a video, An Gwiryeong, front right, confronts one of the soldiers as parliamentarians scrambled to get inside the National Assembly building to reverse martial law, in Seoul Dec. 4, 2024. (YONHAP NEWS TV via AP)

A supporter of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol rally outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A vendor sells LED lights at a protest rally against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol near the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Supporters of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol chant slogans outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Protesters against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol gather outside the ruling People Power Party headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Supporters of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol rally outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Vehicles are parked on the lawn of the National Assembly to prevent helicopters from landing due to concerns of any possible additional acts following the President's short-lived martial law declaration at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)