Israel issues evacuation warning for Baalbek city in eastern Lebanon

Associated Press Jerusalem: The Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for residents in the entire eastern Lebanese city of Baalbeck, along with surrounding areas and key routes in the Bekaa Valley. The area marked for evacuation includes the ancient Roman temple complex, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Lebanon's Heath Ministry said more than 2,790 people have been killed and 12,700 wounded since October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.

Multiple United Nations agencies rallied Tuesday around their fellow organisation, UNRWA, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees, after Israel's parliament took steps to ban it in the coming months. The foreign ministers of Cyprus and Luxembourg say the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is indispensable to providing food, education, and health care to Palestinians. Turkey's Foreign Ministry called Israel's decision a clear violation of international law. United States President Joe Biden's administration says it is seeking an explanation from Israel about its attack Tuesday on a town in northern Gaza that Palestinians say killed at least 88 people, including dozens of women and children.

The death toll from more than a year of the Israel- Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported Monday, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people mostly civilians and abducting 250 others.