Israeli strikes in Gaza and Lebanon kill at least 25, officials say

Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon killed at least 25 civilians Saturday, according to Lebanese and Palestinian health authorities, as the United States and allies were racing to conclude delicate cease-fire negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The Gaza strike early Saturday in the town of Zuweida killed at least 15 members of the Al-Ajlah family, according to a relative of the family. A spokesman for the Gaza civil defense said at least 17 members of the family had been killed. They included Sami Al-Ajlah, a businessman who imported food from Israel to Gaza, along with his two wives, his mother and 11 children, according to the relative.

The Israeli military said it had received reports that a strike had killed civilians and that the incident was “under review.”

In southern Lebanon, a strike on what local officials said was a metal warehouse killed 10 people, including a Syrian woman and her two children, the health ministry said. The death toll appeared to be the highest in a single attack in Lebanon since Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces, in a statement, said it had struck a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the Lebanese city of Nabatieh overnight. The statement did not mention any casualties.

Saturday’s bloodshed came a day after the United States and its allies expressed optimism over cease-fire negotiations to end the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in the enclave, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and sparked a wave of violence around the Middle East. The United States, Qatar and Egypt announced Friday that they had presented a proposal to Israel and Hamas that they said bridges the gaps between the two sides’ demands, with a deal hoped for before the end of next week.

In a statement Saturday, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s negotiating team had expressed “cautious optimism” that a deal could be reached based on the U.S. proposal. It said it hoped the United States and other mediators could exert “heavy pressure” on Hamas to agree to the terms.

Senior Hamas officials said Friday that the proposal they were briefed on did not align with frameworks to which they had agreed.

Britain, Italy, Germany and France also urged the parties Saturday to “continue to engage positively and flexibly” in the talks.

“We underline the importance of avoiding any escalatory action in the region which would undermine the prospect for peace. There is too much at stake,” they said in a joint statement.

Hussein Fakih, head of civil defense forces in the region, said the dead were Syrian workers who had been at the warehouse. The mayor, Khodor Saad, said that workers and their families lived at the warehouse, and denied it was used to store weapons. “It just had metal products in it, for interiors,” he said.

The deaths brought the toll on civilians in Lebanon to 125 since October, according to a Washington Post tally. In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed in attacks by Hezbollah, Israeli officials said.

Later Saturday, Hezbollah said that it had retaliated for the Israeli attack by firing rockets at Ayelet Hashahar, a kibbutz in the Upper Galilee. A Hezbollah statement said it was the first time the area had been targeted. The IDF said Saturday that it had identified “approximately 55 projectiles … crossing from Lebanon,” adding that no injuries were reported.

The airstrike in Gaza hit a warehouse where the Al-Ajlah family had been sheltering, according to the enclave’s civil defense force, which posted pictures of rescue workers in the destroyed structure after the attack. The family’s father, Sami al-Ajlah, owned a large company that sold fresh and frozen meat, according to Anas Helles, who said he was a former neighbor of the family.

Ajlah was one of Gaza’s “largest traders” and had been given approval by Israel to import frozen food and meat, said a family relative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive arrangement. The relative said that Israeli authorities had approved a shipment of food that arrived at the warehouse where Ajlah was staying, hours before he was killed. The Israelis “know exactly who he is,” the relative said. One of Ajlah’s sons had survived the strike, but was in intensive care after his legs were amputated, the relative said.

The IDF said in a statement late Saturday that it had struck “terrorist infrastructure” in an area in central Gaza that had been a source of rocket fire toward Israel and Israeli troops in recent weeks. Earlier in the day, the military issued new evacuation orders for parts of the Maghazi refugee camp about a mile east of Zuweida.

“Reports were received that as a result of the strike, civilians in an adjacent structure were killed. The incident is under review,” the statement said.

Friends of Ajlah posted pictures of him on social media, including at what appeared to be his wedding. He was “decent,” said Helles. “A respectable man with a good reputation.”

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Fahim reported from Istanbul, El Chamaa and Haidamous from Beirut, Vinall from Seoul and Bisset from London.