The Israel Defence Forces press office said that dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked more than 150 Hezbollah targets located in Lebanon on Monday morning, as Tel Aviv began investigating information about the possible death of Yahya Sinwar, a Hamas leader, in the Gaza Strip.
Deadly attacks on Lebanon
Lebanon’s state-run NNA news agency reported that Israeli airstrikes killed one person and wounded six others this morning.
The deadly strikes reportedly hit the outskirts of Bodai, a town in the Bekaa Valley in northeastern Lebanon.
Lebanese media reported about large-scale Israeli airstrikes in the south and east of the country, they were carried out on dozens of settlements.
NNA informs that more than 80 strikes were carried out in the southern neighbourhood of the city of Nabatiyeh, also strikes were carried out on several areas of Bint Jbeil and Marjayoun.
Earlier, Israeli soldiers appealed to Lebanese residents living in the southern parts of the country and urged them to leave the areas where Hezbollah militants are deploying weapons.
Israel is verifying information about the possible death of a Hamas leader
Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar has been incommunicado for quite some time and Israel is looking into the possibility that he is dead – currently an unlikely speculation unsupported by any hard evidence, several Hebrew media outlets reported late Sunday.
The reports, including public broadcaster Kan and news websites Haaretz, Maariv and Walla, claimed that the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate says Sinwar may have died as a result of IDF strikes in Gaza, but that there is currently insufficient circumstantial evidence to prove this, while the Shin Bet news agency believes he is alive.
Some reports quoted sources as noting that the elusive Hamas head, who has been hiding in tunnels under the Strip since the Hamas attack on October 7, had previously disappeared temporarily from radar and then reappeared to publish reports related to ceasefire negotiations and a hostage deal, or other matters.
Security officials cited by multiple publications said that the possibility of Sinwar’s death is now speculation with no real basis.
According to sources quoted by Haaretz, Israel has bombed tunnels in recent months in areas where Sinwar is believed to be hiding, but there is no clear indication that he has been hit and he may be deliberately keeping a low profile.
New casualties in Israeli strikes on Gaza
Eight Palestinians, including two women and five children, were killed on Monday in Israeli airstrikes on a school housing displaced civilians and a house in the central Gaza Strip.
A mother and her four children were killed and others were injured in an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Samak family home in the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Gaza Civil Defence said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the Civil Defence added that an Israeli airstrike on Khaled Bin Al-Waleed’s school in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp killed a man, his wife and their daughter, while others were injured.
Since October 7, Israeli forces have bombed 183 centres and shelters for displaced people across the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Media Office. Palestinians face constant displacement as the Israeli military orders residents of different neighbourhoods to evacuate ahead of airstrikes and ground incursions.
According to the media bureau, the number of displaced people in the besieged strip has reached 2 million out of a total population of 2.3 million Palestinians since the start of the war.
Israel has continued its brutal assault on Gaza since a cross-border Hamas attack on October 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
More than 41,400 people have been killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip since the start of the military operation in the blockaded Palestinian enclave in October 2023, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported. According to its information, “the number of victims of Israeli aggression in the Strip to date totalled 41,431, with 95,818 Arabs injured.”
