The Israeli army says it has finished taking apart Hamas’s leadership in the northern Gaza Strip.
Army representative Daniel Hagari said that Palestinian fighters are now only active in the area occasionally and without leaders.
He said Israel had killed about 8,000 fighters in northern Gaza. The BBC cannot confirm this number by themselves.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are working to stop Hamas in the southern and central parts of Gaza.
According to the health ministry run by Hamas, Israel has killed more than 22,000 people since the war started. On Saturday, it reported that there were over 120 deaths in the last day.
The land has been destroyed and almost all of the 2. 3 million people have been forced to leave.
Israel’s attack began after gunmen from Hamas surprised attacked southern Israel on 7 October. They killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 people as hostages.
More than 120 people are still there after some were let go in a truce last year.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said again on Saturday that Israel will keep fighting to get rid of Hamas, bring back our hostages, and make sure Gaza can’t hurt Israel anymore.
We have to set aside everything. Mr Netanyahu said in a statement that they will keep fighting until they win completely.
At the same time, six people from Palestine died when Israeli soldiers attacked the city of Jenin in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Palestinian news reported that a lot of Israeli soldiers went to the area for the raid.
Apart from the raid, Israeli planes also bombed a group of people in the West Bank. This happened after an Israeli military vehicle hit a bomb and one officer died.
Jenin has experienced many Israeli attacks in the last 18 months, and they have gotten worse since the war in Gaza began on 7 October.
In the north of Israel, Hezbollah shot many rockets at Israel on Saturday. They said it was to retaliate for the killing of a Hamas leader in Beirut.
Saleh al-Arouri was killed in a possible attack by Israel in the capital of Lebanon.
The Iranian-supported Lebanese group says it attacked an air traffic control center in Meron with 62 rockets. The Israeli army said it saw about 40 rockets being fired from Lebanon and it fired back.
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said he wants to make sure the fighting in Gaza doesn’t spread and to stop a never-ending cycle of violence.
Mr Blinken was talking in Greece at the beginning of a trip that will last for a week in the area. He went to Jordan and will meet King Abdullah on Sunday. Then he will go to Qatar.
Tag: Israel Defence Forces
-
Israel claims Hamas command in northern Gaza has been destroyed
-
Half of Gaza’s population famished – UN
A top UN aid person said that many people in Gaza are hungry because of the ongoing fighting.
“The deputy director of the UN World Food Programme, Carl Skau, said that only a small amount of the things they need have been able to get in to the Strip. Nine out of 10 people there can’t eat every day. ”
Mr Skau said it’s very difficult to deliver things in Gaza because of the conditions.
Israel says it needs to keep bombing Gaza to stop Hamas and to bring back Israelis who have been taken as prisoners.
The spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces said to the BBC that they feel bad when civilians are hurt, but they don’t have any other choice.
He said we are trying our best to get as much as we can into the Gaza Strip.
Herzi Halevi, boss of the IDF, was recorded telling soldiers that the army needs to be more aggressive because “we’re seeing terrorists giving up. “This is a sign that their network is falling apart. ”
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has used a special law to go around Congress and approve the sale of about 14,000 tank bullets worth over $106 million to Israel.
Movement to and from Gaza has been made very difficult since October 7th when Hamas fighters broke through Israel’s heavily guarded perimeter fence. They killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.
Israel shut down the borders with Gaza and started bombing the area. This made it hard for people in Gaza to get the help they needed.
The health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says that Israel has killed over 17,700 people in their campaign to retaliate, and more than 7,000 of those were children.
Only the Rafah border with Egypt is open, letting some aid get to Gaza. This week Israel said they will open the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza in a few days. They will only allow aid trucks to go through for inspection. The trucks will go to Rafah and then cross into Gaza.
Mr Skau said he was not ready for the fear, the chaos, and the despair he and his WFP team saw during their trip to Gaza this week.
He said they saw a lot of chaos at warehouses and distribution points. Many hungry people were desperate, and the supermarkets had empty shelves. The shelters were too crowded, and the bathrooms were overflowing.
Last month, international pressure and a brief seven-day halt in fighting allowed some much-needed aid to go into the Gaza Strip. But the WFP says that another border crossing is necessary now to meet the demand.
Mr Skau said that in some places, 9 out of 10 families don’t have any food for a whole day and night.
People in Khan Younis, a city in the south of Gaza, are in a very bad situation because Israeli tanks surround their city on two sides.
Dr Ahmed Moghrabi, who leads the plastic surgery and burns unit at Nasser hospital, was very sad as he talked to the BBC about not having enough food.
I have a three-year-old daughter who always asks me for sweets, apples, and fruits. I cannot give it. “I feel like I can’t do anything,” he said.
“We don’t have much food, just rice. Can you believe we only eat once a day. ”
Khan Younis has been hit with a lot of air strikes lately. The boss of Nasser hospital there said his team can’t keep up with all the people who are getting hurt and killed.
Israel says that leaders of Hamas are hiding in Khan Younis, maybe in tunnels underground. They are fighting to destroy the group’s weapons and military power, going from house to house and tunnel to tunnel.
On Saturday, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said that the United States is helping the bad things happening in the war by blocking a UN resolution to stop the fighting in Gaza.
13 out of 15 countries on the Security Council voted for the resolution asking for a ceasefire. The UK didn’t vote and the US was the only country that said no to the resolution.
Mr Abbas, the boss of the Palestinian government, said that he blames Washington for the killing of Palestinian kids, women, and old people in Gaza by Israeli soldiers.
The US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, supported the decision to veto and said the resolution was asking for a ceasefire that couldn’t be maintained. This would allow Hamas to continue their actions from October 7.
Benjamin Netanyahu , the leader of Israel, said he was thankful for the US supporting them at the security council.
A temporary halt in fighting for seven days ended a little over a week ago. Hamas let go of 78 people they were holding captive, and in return, Israel released 180 Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas in Gaza is still holding more than 100 hostages.
On Saturday, it was reported that Sahar Baruch, a 25-year-old Israeli who was held hostage, has been killed. His kibbutz and a group of hostages shared this news in a statement.
After the armed group of Hamas showed a video on Friday of the aftermath of a failed mission by the Israeli military to rescue a hostage. -
Three Palestinian dead in occupied West Bank – Israeli soldiers report
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on Sunday that three Palestinians had been slain at the Jenin Camp in the occupied West Bank.
According to the IDF, they stopped a “terrorist cell” at the camp. Three members of the group were reportedly killed during the operation, according to the IDF.
In a statement outlining the incident, the IDF claimed that Naif Abu Tsuik, the cell’s leader, and two other members had been slain. Additionally, an M-16 rifle was discovered in the cell’s car.
A statement regarding the deaths has not yet been released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. According to eyewitness accounts, Israeli soldiers took the truck with the dead inside.
The incident was denounced by the Hamas spokesman, Hazem Qassem, as a “new crime” committed by the “Zionist enemy.”
He declared that the Palestinian people would keep up their struggle and that the occupation will face the repercussions of its acts.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said this past weekend that an Israeli settler had shot and murdered a Palestinian man in the West Bank neighbourhood of Burqa, close to Ramallah.
Two Israelis were detained after the event, which was condemned by the US. Israeli settlers rarely face arrest after attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli authorities reported that a Palestinian gunman who was also shot and killed on Saturday night shot and murdered an Israeli patrolman in Tel Aviv.
Long a hotbed of conflict, Jenin witnessed Israeli forces’ largest-scale military offensive in decades last month.
At least 12 Palestinians died as a result of the rioting, which also severely damaged the city’s camp for refugees.
-
Three Israeli civilians shot in West Bank, one critically
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Israeli emergency services reported Sunday that two young girls and one Israeli man were injured in a gunshot in the West Bank.
According to the IDF, the three people were hurt when rounds were fired from a moving car at the Tekoa Junction, south of Bethlehem.
The wounded man, a 35-year-old civilian, is conscious and suffering from gunshot wounds, according to the Magen David Adom (MDA) rescue agency. He is in a serious but stable condition.
The girls, aged 9 and 14, were mildly injured in the incident. All three are being taken to Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem, the MDA said.
Israeli troops are searching for the attackers, the army said.
The shooting took place in the southern West Bank, which is normally calmer than the north, which includes Jenin and Nablus.
-
Israeli aircrafts attack Syrian air defence battery
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced on Sunday that Israeli warplanes had attacked a Syrian air defence position where, according to the IDF, an anti-aircraft rocket was fired in Israel’s direction.
According to the IDF statement, Israeli fighter jets targeted additional nearby locations as well.
Early on Sunday, a Syrian anti-aircraft rocket was fired into Israel, according to the IDF, and it detonated in the air on Israeli soil.
The Israeli home front’s civilian population has not received any particular instructions, and no injuries have been recorded, it claimed.
Israeli media reported Sunday that debris from the Syrian-launched rocket landed in two neighborhoods of the southern city of Rahat in Israel, damaging homes.
Meanwhile Syria’s official news agency SANA said Israel carried out air attacks from the direction northeast of Beirut, targeting some points near the city of Homs.
-
A large number of rockets launched at Israel after deadly airstrikes in Gaza
A day after Israeli military bombings in Gaza killed 10 innocent Palestinians, including men, women, and children, and prompted promises of reprisal, more than 60 rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel on Wednesday.
Just after 2 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the top spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces, reported that over 500,000 Israelis were in or close to shelters.
The rocket firing followed further strikes by the Israel Defence Forces in Gaza on Wednesday that they claimed were directed at members and infrastructure of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation.
The suspects on Wednesday were traveling to a rocket launch site in the city of Khan Younis, the IDF said. The Ministry of Health in Gaza said one person was killed in Wednesday’s attack. It named him as Muhammad Yusuf Saleh Abu Ta’ima, 25, and said he was killed in the bombing east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
A CNN producer in Gaza reported explosions in Khan Younis, Rafah and northern Gaza.
Shortly after, he saw at least six rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel. Sirens warning of incoming rockets sounded in the southern Israeli cities of Sderot and Ashkelon and the Lachish area, all near the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said. Sirens later sounded in Tel Aviv, Israel’s main city on the Mediterranean coast, warning of potential incoming rocket fire.
Nine rockets fired at the city of Sderot were all intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, the municipality of Sderot said Wednesday. The city said it had no reports of injuries or property damage.
The nearby city of Ashkelon also said it had no reports of injuries or damage.
One of the three Islamic Jihad commanders killed on Tuesday was working on capabilities to launch rockets from the West Bank toward Israel, IDF chief spokesman Hagari said at the time.
Rockets have never been fired from the West Bank into Israel.
Islamic Jihad confirmed three of its commanders were killed in the overnight operation along with their wives and children.
The commanders killed were Jihad Shaker Al-Ghannam, secretary of the Military Council in the al Quds Brigades; Khalil Salah al Bahtini, commander of the Northern Region in the al Quds Brigades; and Ezzedine, one of the leaders of the military wing of the al Quds Brigades in the West Bank, the group said.
Hagari said the operation had been planned since last Tuesday, when Islamic Jihad fired more than 100 rockets toward Israel following the death of its former spokesman while on hunger strike in an Israeli prison.
But, the IDF did not have the “operational conditions” until overnight Tuesday.
The IDF launched a further strike on Tuesday, saying its air force targeted “a terrorist squad” belonging to Islamic Jihad in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza said two people were killed and two others injured in that attack east of Khan Younis, although they have yet to identify them, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 15 on Tuesday.