Gaza live: Three children among 31 killed in Israeli Beirut air strike

Hungarian intelligence services have conducted interviews with Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, the head of BAC Consulting, a Budapest-based company linked to Israel's operation detonating pagers in Lebanon.

Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo said on Wednesday that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon were made by BAC Consulting, which had gained a licence to use Gold Apollo's branding.

Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, the Italian-Hungarian CEO and owner of BAC Consulting, told NBC News earlier this week that she did not make the pagers and said she was "just the intermediate".

Hungarian intelligence agencies have been investigating the matter since Wednesday and have interviewed Barsony-Arcidiacono several times, a Hungarian government spokesperson said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government earlier this week said that BAC Consulting was "a trading-intermediary company, which has no manufacturing or other site of operation in Hungary".

You can read more about the various companies linked to the deadly explosions here. 

Palestinian-American lawmaker Rashida Tlaib has condemned as racist a cartoon published in a conservative magazine, National Review, showing her with an exploding pager, following Israel's attack that detonated devices belonging to Hezbollah.

"Our community is already in so much pain right now. This racism will incite more hate + violence against our Arab & Muslim communities, and it makes everyone less safe. It's disgraceful that the media continues to normalise this racism," Tlaib wrote on X.

Tlaib is the only Palestinian-American lawmaker in the US Congress.

The cartoon, published on Thursday, depicted Tlaib sitting beside an exploding pager, saying: "ODD. MY PAGER JUST EXPLODED."

Thank you, Mayor @AHammoudMI, for speaking up. Our community is already in so much pain right now. This racism will incite more hate + violence against our Arab & Muslim communities, and it makes everyone less safe. It’s disgraceful that the media continues to normalize this… https://t.co/JTn2mur4Yj

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) September 20, 2024

An Israeli strike that hit a school sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza City has killed at least 13 Palestinians, Wafa news agency reported on Saturday.

A number of other people were wounded in a separate strike that hit a school in the same Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood, Wafa added.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 41,391 Palestinians since 7 October, the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday.

At least 95,760 others have been wounded in the enclave since then, the ministry added. 

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Israel was committing "shameless crimes" against children, not combatants. 

Khamenei called for "inner strength" among Muslims to remove a "malignant cancerous tumour" from Palestine. 

His comments came a day after an Israeli air strike on a densely populated area in the Lebanese capital Beirut had killed 31 people, including three children and seven women, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers. 

Here are some of the key developments overnight and this morning: 

• In a televised conference on Saturday, Lebanon's health ministry said that at least 31 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a densely populated suburb of Beirut a day earlier. Among those killed were three children and seven women.
   
• Hezbollah confirmed that Ahmed Wahbi, a senior commander who was in charge of the military operations of the Radwan special forces during the Gaza war until early 2024, was killed in Israel's strike on Beirut. Earlier, the group confirmed that Ibrahim Aqil, one of its most senior military commanders, had also been killed.
   
• Hamas mourned the death of senior Hezbollah leader Aqil, stating that it was a "crime" and a "folly" that Israel would pay for.
   
• An Israeli air strike on Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Saturday morning killed four Palestinian civilians, Wafa news agency reported. 
   
•  Japan's Icom said it was highly unlikely that hand-held radio devices that exploded in Lebanon earlier this week were the company's products.
   
• A Palestinian man was seriously wounded after being shot by Israeli forces near the entrance to Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, according to medics.