More than 20 dead after airstrike on Christian town in north Lebanon

More than 20 people have been killed in an unprecedented Israeli airstrike on a Christian town in northern Lebanon, prompting Hezbollah to fire rockets at Tel Aviv, as Israel's multi-front war continues to escalate.

- Bethan McKernan

It was also a particularly bloody 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, where four people were killed in an Israeli bombing of a hospital courtyard in central Gaza, another strike on a nearby school turned shelter killed at least 20 people, and a drone strike killed five children playing on the street in al-Shati camp in Gaza City, according to local health authorities.

Rights groups warn that Israel is seeking to forcibly expel the remaining population of northern Gaza in a ferocious renewed campaign on the besieged Palestinian territory. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports of civilian casualties in the three incidents on Sunday and yesterday.

The bombing yesterday afternoon on Aitou, a Maronite village near the northern city of Tripoli, hit a small apartment building, killing 21 people according to the Lebanese Red Cross. Footage from the scene broadcast by Lebanese television channels showed a heavily damaged building, destroyed cars, and dead and injured people lying on the street as others dug through the rubble.

Aitou is far from Hezbollah's power centres in Beirut and the south and east of the country. The village's mayor, Joseph Trad, told Reuters that the building had been rented to families displaced by the war.

The strike was one of several over the past two weeks targeting areas thought to be "safe", including the bombing of a displacement centre in the southern town of Wardaniyeh. Israel is also facing severe international criticism for at least three violations that have injured five members of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.