Middle East latest: Dozens killed in Gaza as Israel says it targeted a weapons facility

Israeli strikes killed at least 30 people in Gaza, including on a home where displaced families were sheltering, according to Palestinian health officials.

Ten people were killed early Tuesday, including four children and two women, and a strike late Monday on the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya killed at least 20 people, including eight women and six children, health officials said.

The Israeli military said it targeted a weapons storage facility from which a militant had operated, and that “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.”

Israel has been waging a massive offensive in northern Gaza — which was already the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory — for nearly a month.

Despite growing pressure from the United States and others in the international community for a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon, intensified Israeli strikes against the Hezbollah militant group are expanding beyond Lebanon’s border areas. Israel is also fighting a seemingly endless war against Hamas in northern Gaza.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, at least 3,000 people have been killed and some 13,500 wounded in Lebanon, the Health Ministry reports.

More than a year of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children. The war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.

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White House caught off guard by Israeli defense minister getting fired

WASHINGTON, D.C. — White House officials were taken by surprise by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s firing of defense minister Yoav Gallant and found the move concerning, according to a United States official.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, added that Biden advisers have “real questions about the reasons for Gallant’s firing and about what is driving the decision.”

The timing of the move was also confounding at the White House, the official added. Israel is still embroiled in conflicts Gaza and Lebanon and bracing for a retaliatory attack from Iran for its Oct. 26 strikes on Iranian military strikes. That Israeli strike was carried in response for an Iranian missile attack in early October.