Netanyahu cautions against Hezbollah’s ‘grave error’

At least 73 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes that hit several houses at a town in the northern Gaza Strip, Hamas media said.

Medics said the air strikes targeted a multi-floor building in Beit Lahiya town and damaged several houses nearby.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office also said several people were wounded and missing.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli strikes hit the upper floors of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and forces opened fire at it, causing panic.

Israel’s military said it was operating near the hospital and “there was no intentional fire directed at it.”

Another Israeli official said the casualty numbers were likely exaggerated and did not match information gathered by Israel’s military.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of trying to assassinate him.

Netanyahu’s office said a drone was launched toward his residence in the central town of Caesarea but he and his wife were not home at the time and there were no injuries.

“The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

“Anyone who tries to harm Israel’s citizens will pay a heavy price,” he said in comments directed at Tehran and “its proxies”, which include Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The Iran-backed group did not acknowledge the attack but late Saturday Iran’s United Nations mission said “this action was taken” by Hezbollah.

Initially an overspill from the Gaza conflict, months of trading fire across the joint border between Israel and Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based, escalated into a full conflict in late September.

nm/rm (Reuters, AP, AFP)