Middle East latest: 18 people killed and 92 wounded in Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon says

Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip and Beirut on Thursday left more than 40 people dead, Palestinian and Lebanese authorities said.

The first strike, on a school sheltering the displaced in the Gaza Strip, killed at least 27 people, including a child and seven women, Palestinian officials said. Israel continues to fire at what it says are militant targets across Gaza.

Later Thursday, at least 18 people were killed and 92 wounded in Israeli airstrikes that hit two different areas in central Beirut on Thursday evening, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

An Associated Press photographer who went to the scene of the strikes in Beirut said the first one, in the area of Ras al-Nabaa, appeared to have hit the lower half of an eight-story apartment building, and that explosions were ongoing inside the building. A large number of ambulances arrived at the scene.

The second strike in Beirut, in the area of Burj Abi Haidar, collapsed an entire building, which was engulfed in flames, the photographer said. There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military. In recent weeks, Israel has launched frequent strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, but strikes in central Beirut are rare.

In southern Lebanon, meanwhile, the U.N. peacekeeping force said an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers, who were hospitalized.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its...