Hezbollah hits Tel Aviv base, Israel issues new displacement orders in Gaza

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it fired dozens of missiles and drones at Israel, as the Lebanese army announced it lost a soldier in an Israeli attack in the south.

The group said in a statement that it had "launched, for the first time, an aerial attack using a swarm of strike drones on the Ashdod naval base" in southern Israel.

In a separate statement, it said it launched missiles at an Israeli army intelligence base in the Tel Aviv suburbs in the second such attack on and near the city on Sunday.

Hezbollah fighters launched "a volley of qualitative missiles" at the "Glilot base (the headquarters of the 8200 Military Intelligence Unit)... in the Tel Aviv suburbs," the group said in a statement.

The Israeli military did not comment on the attack claims.

But it said earlier that air raid sirens had sounded in several locations in central and northern Israel, including in the greater Tel Aviv suburbs. The military said it intercepted a number of the around 55 projectiles fired at northern Israel.

And the Israeli ambulance service confirmed that three people were wounded in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, as a result of rockets launched from Lebanon.

Lebanon said Israeli air strikes on Saturday killed more than 55 people, many of them in central Beirut, as Israel's defense minister vowed decisive action against Hezbollah, in a call with his U.S. counterpart.

Gaza displacement orders

Hundreds of Palestinians have fled Gaza City's Shujayea after the Israeli military issued fresh displacement orders and threatened to shell the northern neighborhood, according to Palestinian news and information agency Wafa.

This "urgent warning" for the Shujayea suburb posted by the Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee on X was blamed on Palestinian armed fighters firing rockets from that heavily built-up district in the north of the Gaza Strip. It was posted at about 6:30 pm local time [16:30 GMT], about two hours after sunset.

"For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south," the military's post said. 

The rocket volley on Saturday was claimed by Hamas's armed wing, which said it had targeted an Israeli army base over the border.

Videos verified by Al Jazeera's Sanad agency showed Palestinians fleeing parts of Gaza City after Israel's army threatened that the Shujayea neighborhood would become a "dangerous combat zone."

One video showed a woman and her children using the lights from their phones to try to see as they fled the area on foot - it is the latest in multiple waves of displacement since the war began 13 months ago.

The orders came as an Israeli siege on northern Gaza, including Jabalia, Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya, entered its eighth week.

Seasonal flooding and mounting death toll

Adding to the misery of the enclave's 2.3 million people, most of whom have been repeatedly displaced, heavy winter rain flooded hundreds of tents across the enclave, spoiling food and sweeping away plastic and cloth sheeting that had protected them against the elements.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said thousands of displaced people were impacted by the seasonal flooding and demanded new tents and caravans from aid donors to shield them.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Sunday that at least 44,211 people have been killed and 104,567 wounded in more than 13 months of war between Israel and Hamas fighters, according to Gaza's health ministry.

The toll includes 35 Palestinians killed and 94 wounded in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry added.

In north Gaza, where Israeli forces have been operating against regrouping Hamas fighters since early last month, health officials said an Israeli drone dropped bombs on Kamal Adwan Hospital, injuring its director Hussam Abu Safiya.

"This will not stop us from completing our humanitarian mission and we will continue to do this job at any cost," Abu Safiya said in a video statement shared by the health ministry. "We are being targeted daily. They targeted me a while ago but this will not deter us."

Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in north Gaza that are barely operational as the health ministry said the Israeli forces have detained and expelled medical staff and prevented emergency medical, food and fuel supplies from reaching them.

Calls for ceasefire

The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borell has called for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Israel-Hezbollah war, while on a visit to the Lebanese capital for talks.

"We see only one possible way ahead: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701," Borell said after meeting Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of his allies in Hezbollah.

Borrell is in Lebanon to meet with top officials there, as efforts to secure a ceasefire there continue. He also pledged $208m in support for Lebanon's armed forces.

The UN special envoy for Syria said that it was "extremely critical" to end the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza to avoid the country being pulled into a regional war.

"We need now to make sure that we have immediately a ceasefire in Gaza, that we have a ceasefire in Lebanon, and that we avoid Syria being dragged even further into the conflict," said Geir Pedersen ahead of a meeting with the Syrian foreign minister in Damascus.

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