Israel pummels Lebanon and Gaza, killing dozens in fresh waves of airstrikes

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel launched dozens of intense airstrikes across Lebanon's northeastern farming villages on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding scores more, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported.

In central Gaza, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli aerial attacks that began Thursday, hospital officials said.

The latest violence comes against the backdrop of the Biden administration’s renewed diplomatic push, days before the U.S. election, to reach temporary cease-fire deals. Israel has stepped up its offensive against Hamas’ remaining fighters in Gaza, pulverizing areas in the north and raising fears of worsening humanitarian conditions for civilians still there.

In Lebanon, Israel in recent weeks has broadened its strikes to bigger urban hubs, like the town of Baalbek, home to 80,000 people, after initially targeting smaller border villages in the south, where Hezbollah conducts operations. Iran-backed Hezbollah doubles as a major political party and provider of social services in Lebanon.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles from Lebanon into Israel in solidarity with Hamas immediately after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza. The yearlong cross-border fighting boiled over to full-blown war on Oct. 1, when Israeli forces launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006.

In Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley — where small villages, olive groves and wineries nestled between the country's mountain ranges had largely been spared the worst of Israeli bombardment until last month — Israel conducted a series of heavy airstrikes Friday, killing at least 52 people, driving more families to flee with whatever they could carry and sending thick plumes of smoke over the horizon.

Intensified Israeli airstrikes on and around the northeastern city of Baalbek after Israel issued evacuation orders this week have prompted 60,000 people to flee, emptying nearby villages, said Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region.

Rescuers searched for survivors after airstrikes killed nine people and brought down a building that had housed 20 people in the town of Younine. Further Israeli strikes killed 12 people in the town of Amhaz and 31 others across at least a dozen villages in Lebanon's northeast, bringing the total death toll to 52, the Health Ministry said. The bombardment left 72 people wounded, the ministry added.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the deadly strikes.

In Lebanon’s capital, Israeli planes pounded the southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight and early Friday for the first time in four days, spreading panic after a rare lull. The Israeli military, which warned residents to evacuate at least nine locations in Dahiyeh, said it hit Hezbollah weapons manufacturing sites and command centers.

There were no reports of casualties from Dahiyeh, where fears of Israeli bombings drive a mass outflow of residents each night.

Bulldozers rumbled through clouds of dust and smoke Friday, clearing rubble from the pulverized roads where Israeli warplanes had reduced dozens of buildings to their skeletal remains.

Formerly home to families and businesses, mid-rise apartment blocks were left open to the breeze, walls blown off and furniture buried. Hezbollah supporters in several locations raised the group’s bright yellow banner atop the rubble.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted last year, more than 2,897 people have been killed and 13,150 wounded in Lebanon, the Health Ministry reports, not including Friday's rising toll. Health authorities say that a quarter of those killed were women and children.

Overall, U.N. agencies estimate that Israel’s ground invasion and bombardment of Lebanon has displaced 1.4 million people. Residents of Israel’s northern communities near Lebanon, roughly 60,000 people, have also been displaced for more than a year.

Hezbollah has continued firing rockets into northern Israel, with projectiles launched from Lebanon on Thursday crashing into agricultural areas and killing seven people, including four Thai farm workers.

Israel is also pressing on with its bombardment of Gaza on Friday, where a barrage of airstrikes hit central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp and killed at least 21 Palestinians — including an 18-month-old and his 10-year-old sister — according to health officials at the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Israeli strikes also hit a motorcycle in Zuwaida and a house in Deir al-Balah, killing four more people, hospital officials said, bringing the overall death toll in Gaza to 25 on Friday.

Israel said it targeted Hamas infrastructure and a militant operating near the Nuseirat refugee camp but did not comment on the strikes outside the camp. It said it was aware of reports of civilian casualties and was investigating. In a separate announcement, the army said an airstrike on a vehicle in Gaza’s southern town of Khan Younis killed a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, Izz al-Din Kassab, and his assistant, Ayman Ayesh.

Hamas confirmed the death of Kassab, who was not well known to the public. Israel alleged he was a coordinator between militant groups in Gaza.

As U.S. diplomats left the region this week after a flurry of meetings with Israeli officials, there were no signs of a breakthrough on a cease-fire in either Lebanon or Gaza.

Hamas on Friday doubled down on its longstanding demands for a permanent cease-fire and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, saying Israel offered only a temporary pause in the war and an increase in aid shipments in the latest negotiations. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

“The proposals do not meet the comprehensive needs of the Palestinian people in terms of security, stability, relief, and reconstruction,” said senior Hamas official Bassem Naem, speaking first to the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV before confirming the group’s position to The Associated Press.

Israel’s blistering war in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel and took some 250 hostages back to Gaza.

Health officials inside Hamas-run Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of the dead in the enclave are women and children.

Israeli forces have recently shifted their attention to Hamas militants that they say have regrouped in northern Gaza, renewing an offensive that has trapped tens of thousands of people under intense bombardment without enough food or water.

Israeli airstrikes have repeatedly delayed an emergency polio vaccination campaign, which the World Health Organization announced it planned to finally launch on Saturday — but only in Gaza City. Towns further north, like Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, remain inaccessible as Israel tightens its siege.

The U.N. and other humanitarian organizations warned on Friday that “the situation unfolding in north Gaza is apocalyptic,” citing Israel’s denial of humanitarian aid to the area, military raids on hospitals, air strikes on shelters and obstruction of Palestinian rescue teams who struggle to help survivors after Israeli attacks.

Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, David Rising in Bangkok, Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Edith Lederer in New York and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

A man shouts slogans against Israel as he stands on the balcony of his damaged apartment at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Bodies of Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are seen at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Civil defense workers extinguish a fire as smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man walks on the rubble of his destroyed apartment following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Civil defense workers extinguish a fire as smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man shouts slogans against Israel as he stands on the balcony of his damaged apartment at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man carries a Hezbollah flag as he walks on the rubble of his destroyed apartment following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Civil defense workers extinguish a fire as smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man carries a Hezbollah flag as he walks on the rubble of his destroyed apartment following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A woman holds a picture of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man flashes the victory sign as holds up a Hezbollah flag while stands on the ruins of his destroyed apartment at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man shouts slogans as he holds a picture depicting Imam Ali at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A municipality worker uses a skid steer loader to reopen a bridge closed by the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, as the sunrise in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A municipality worker uses a skid steer loader to reopen a bridge closed by the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Workers remove the rubble in front of a damaged building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A man passes a destroyed building hit by an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A man rides with his family a three-wheeled motorized known as "tok-toks," as they pass by a car that was damaged after an Israeli airstrike hit a building on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Flame and smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A municipality worker uses a bulldozer to remove the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises from a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Flame and smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Flame and smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

FILE - Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Jebaliya, northern Gaza Strip, on May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Enas Rami, File)

FILE - Israeli soldiers walk in Gaza City's Shijaiyah neighborhood on Dec. 8, 2023, as part of an operation to round up hundreds of Palestinians across the northern Gaza Strip and truck some to an undisclosed location. (AP Photo/Moti Milrod, Haaretz, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams returned to court Friday, sitting stoically as his lawyers fought to eliminate a key charge in the federal corruption indictment that threatens his political future.

The Democrat is fighting to throw out a bribery charge, one of five counts in a case that U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho said will go to trial April 21, 2025, in the thick of Adams’ promised reelection campaign.

The mayor’s lawyers argued at a Manhattan federal court hearing that the bribery charge doesn't meet the federal standard of a crime and is “insufficiently specific,” particularly after recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions redefined how it is prosecuted.

“The prosecutor for the United States had trouble defining what the ‘quo’ is here,” Adams’ lawyer John Bash argued, referring to the concept of a “quid pro quo,” a Latin phrase that essentially means “something for something.”

Prosecutors countered that Adams' lawyers were splitting hairs because, they allege, Adams was taking bribes and exerting influence while holding a prior elected office and as he anticipated becoming mayor.

Ho said he would take the arguments “under advisement and attempt to rule shortly."

Prosecutors also disclosed Friday that they’ve searched through nearly two-dozen electronic devices seized in the investigation but still haven’t been able to access Adams’ personal cellphone and weren’t sure they would. According to his indictment, Adams changed his password just before giving the phone to authorities, then claimed he forgot it.

The indictment, which also includes wire fraud and conspiracy charges, accuses Adams of accepting flight upgrades and other luxury travel perks valued at $100,000 along with illegal campaign contributions from a Turkish official and other foreign nationals looking to buy his influence.

In exchange, prosecutors say, Adams performed political favors that benefited the Turkish government, including pressuring the fire department in 2021 to approve the opening of a diplomatic tower that it had deemed unsafe.

Adams held a different elected position at the time, Brooklyn borough president, but by then it was clear that he would become mayor.

Adams has pleaded not guilty to the charges and vowed to remain in office as he mounts his legal defense.

Bash argued the alleged perks don't meet the legal definition of bribery because they predate his time as mayor and have "nothing to do with his governmental position.”

Adams' lawyers contend prosecutors are seeking to criminalize “normal and perfectly lawful acts” that Adams undertook as Brooklyn borough president before he was elected mayor.

Under the law, prosecutors must show that Adams took bribes in exchange for using his official office to exert influence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten argued that Adams’ role as borough president “gets him in the room, as it were, with the fire commissioner.”

Ho wondered whether, rather than Adams' job as borough president, it was Adams’ impending move to City Hall that gave him the power to pressure the fire department.

“It seems a little weird when the jurisdictional connection here is that he was Brooklyn borough president but that his ability to exert pressure extends from something else," Ho said.

Scotten stood firm, arguing that “if Margot Robbie gave him a call and was really persuasive,” the “Barbie” actor and producer still wouldn't be able to influence the fire department without also holding an elected office.

“He probably would've taken that call," Ho quipped, prompting laughter in the courtroom.

Ho allotted the defense and prosecution each 20 minutes to argue the issue.

The judge interjected with questions throughout the arguments, at one point asking Bash to consider whether prosecutors would be able to remedy their alleged deficiencies by providing additional details or allegations.

“I’d hate to write the government’s superseding indictment for them, if that’s the direction they’re going to go,” Bash replied before launching into an extended discussion of the intricacies of bribery law.

Adams broke from his solemn gaze and nodded along emphatically near the end of the two-hour hearing as another of his lawyers, Alex Spiro, warned the judge that holding his trial at the same time as next June’s Democratic primary would be a “grave, grave democratic concern.”

Ho said he’s confident the April 2025 date will hold, “assuming nothing unexpected comes up.”

Scotten said at a hearing last month that they are pursuing “several related investigations” and that it is “quite likely” prosecutors will seek a superseding indictment charging Adams with additional crimes. Scotten also said it is “likely” additional defendants will be charged.

Late Thursday, Ho rejected another defense attempt to chip away at the case, denying Adams' request for a hearing on the mayor's claims that the government has been leaking information about the investigation to the news media.

The judge ruled that Adams and his lawyers failed to substantiate those claims and, if any leaks occurred, that the government was to blame.

In court filings outlining their arguments, Adams' lawyers said the years of flight upgrades and other perks the mayor received were at most “classic gratuities,” which a recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings found were not covered by the bribery statute if they were given for past acts, according to the filing.

Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, responded that Adams actions were plainly criminal.

“It should be clear from the face of the indictment that there is nothing routine about a public official accepting over $100,000 in benefits from a foreign diplomat, which he took great pains to conceal — including by manufacturing fake paper trails to create the illusion of payment,” prosecutors wrote.

Several of Adams’ closest aides — including his police commissioner, schools chancellor and multiple deputy mayors — have resigned in recent months after federal investigators executed coordinated searches of their homes in early September.

Adams has maintained that he can continue to lead the city effectively while fighting the charges.

But his political future remains fraught and several opponents have announced plans to challenge him in next year's mayoral primary.

Earlier this week, Adams raised eyebrows after repeatedly declining to criticize former President Donald Trump, refusing to say when he last spoke with the Republican nominee or whether he was angling for a pardon should Trump win reelection.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives to the US federal court house in New York, Friday, Nov. 01, 2024.(AP Photo/Kena Betancur)

FILE - New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a press conference at City Hall, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives to the US federal court house in New York, Friday, Nov. 01, 2024.(AP Photo/Kena Betancur)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives to the US federal court house in New York, Friday, Nov. 01, 2024.(AP Photo/Kena Betancur)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives to the US federal court house in New York, Friday, Nov. 01, 2024.(AP Photo/Kena Betancur)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives to the US federal court house in New York, Friday, Nov. 01, 2024.(AP Photo/Kena Betancur)

FILE - New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks to reporters after a news conference in New York, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)