Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed 20 people on Wednesday, while Israeli troops intensified their siege of northern neighbourhoods of the Palestinian enclave, surrounding hospitals and refugee shelters and ordering residents to flee south. Meanwhile, The Israeli army said it killed a cleric tipped to succeed slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a Beirut airstrike three weeks ago targeting commanders of the Iranian-backed militant group.
Israel intensifies siege of northern Gaza
The Gaza Health Ministry and the World Health Organisation said they would not be able to launch a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza as planned due to intense bombardment, mass displacement and lack of access.
Israeli troops launched the operation in the north about three weeks ago with the stated aim of preventing Hamas militants from regrouping. The operation intensified after Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar was killed a week ago.
Israel’s allies, including the US, have expressed hope that Sinwar’s death will give a new impetus to peace, allowing Israel to claim it has achieved some of its main goals in Gaza. But so far, Israeli troops appear only to have stepped up their offensive, especially on northern neighbourhoods where Israel says Hamas militants are regrouping in the ruins of areas that were among the first targets of Israel’s campaign last year.
Last Friday, the Israeli military announced it had sent another army unit to Jabalia on the northern edge of Gaza. Residents say troops have besieged shelters, forcing displaced residents to leave, while rounding up many men. At least 650 people have been killed since the new offensive began, according to the health ministry.
On Wednesday, 18 of the 20 people killed in Israeli military strikes on the enclave died in northern Gaza.
UNRWA staff killed in Gaza
The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said on Wednesday that one of its staff members was killed in a collision with a UNRWA vehicle in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Medics said the man’s brother was also killed. The Gaza City municipality reported that two city workers were killed and three injured in the strike.
Health and emergency officials said dozens of bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in and around Jabaliya were scattered on roadsides and under rubble where medical teams could not reach.
Hospitals in the north have either stopped providing medical services or are virtually inoperable due to the offensive. Hospitals where medics have refused Israeli evacuation orders say they are running out of blood for transfusions and coffins and shrouds for the dead.
US troops, Iranian-backed groups trade fire in eastern Syria
Iranian-backed armed groups traded blows on Tuesday night with US troops stationed on the west bank of the Euphrates River in the Deir ez-Zor province in eastern Syria.
According to local sources who spoke to Anadolu, the Iranian-backed groups launched a missile strike on the Conoco gas field in Deir ez-Zor.
The sources confirmed loud explosions in the area where US troops are stationed, but there was no information on whether there were casualties or material damage.
In response to the attack, US troops launched artillery strikes on the villages of Hawija Saker, Al-Jafra, and Murad, where Iranian-backed groups are believed to be located.
Later in the night, unidentified fighter jets also struck the villages, the sources added, without specifying who the aircraft belonged to. The US Army has not yet commented on the reported attacks.
Israel claims it has killed Nasrallah’s apparent successor
The Israeli army said it killed a cleric tipped to succeed slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a Beirut airstrike three weeks ago targeting commanders of the Iranian-backed militant group.
Hezbollah has not issued a statement on Israeli claims that Hashem Safieddine was killed. The Israeli army said in a statement on Tuesday:
It can now be confirmed that in an attack approximately three weeks ago, Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, and Ali Hussein Hazima, the head of Hezbollah’s Intelligence Directorate, were killed along with other Hezbollah commanders.
The army said the air force struck Hezbollah’s main intelligence headquarters in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital, and that more than 25 Hezbollah fighters were there at the time.
Hezbollah’s long-time leader Nasrallah was killed on September 27 in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Safieddine, who was tipped to succeed his distant cousin as leader of the Lebanon-based group, had been out of touch since the Israeli strikes on Beirut several weeks ago, a senior Hezbollah source said at the time. Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said in a statement after confirming Safieddine’s death:
We have reached Nasrallah, his replacement and most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership.
After nearly a year of war with Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon in late September, vowing to secure its northern border, which is threatened by cross-border fire from Lebanese ally Hamas.
Israel stepped up air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds across the country and brought in ground troops late last month. The war has killed at least 1,552 people since 23 September, according to Lebanon’s health ministry figures obtained by AFP.
