On this image launched by Hezbollah Army Media, reveals senior Hezbollah commander Wissam Tawil who was killed in Kherbet Selem village, South Lebanon, on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Tawil a senior Hezbollah commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit his automobile in southern Lebanon, a safety official advised The Related Press. (Hezbollah Army Media, by way of AP )
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike killed an elite Hezbollah commander Monday in southern Lebanon, the newest in an escalating alternate of strikes throughout the border which have raised fears of one other Mideast warfare even because the preventing in Gaza exacts a mounting toll on civilians.
The strike on an SUV killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah unit that operates alongside the border, in response to a Lebanese safety official who spoke on situation of anonymity in line with laws. The commander, Wissam al-Tawil, was a veteran of the Iranian-backed Lebanese pressure who took half within the 2006 cross-border kidnapping of two Israeli troopers that triggered the final warfare between Israel and Hezbollah, an official within the group mentioned.
He’s probably the most senior Hezbollah militant killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault into southern Israel triggered all-out warfare in Gaza and lower-intensity preventing between Israel and Hezbollah, which has escalated since an Israeli strike killed a senior Hamas chief final week in Beirut.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who’s again within the area this week, seems to be attempting to move off a wider battle.
In different developments, Israel mentioned it has largely wrapped up main operations in northern Gaza, although preventing and bombardment there proceed. Israeli forces are actually specializing in the central area and the southern metropolis of Khan Younis, the place 1000’s extra Palestinians fled.
Israeli officers say the preventing will proceed for a lot of extra months as the military seeks to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken in the course of the militants’ Oct. 7 assault.
The offensive has already killed over 23,000 Palestinians, devastated huge swaths of the Gaza Strip, displaced practically 85% of its inhabitants of two.3 million and left 1 / 4 of its residents dealing with hunger.
‘Sickening scenes’ in Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals
Medics, sufferers and displaced individuals fled from central Gaza’s essential hospital as preventing drew nearer, witnesses mentioned Monday. Dropping the ability can be one other main blow to a well being system shattered by three months of warfare.
Docs With out Borders and different help teams withdrew from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, saying it was too harmful amid Israeli bombardment, drone strikes and sniper hearth. That unfold panic amongst individuals sheltering there. Hundreds left, becoming a member of the a whole bunch of 1000’s who’ve fled additional south, mentioned a hospital staffer, Omar al-Darawi.
Tens of 1000’s of individuals have sought shelter in Gaza’s hospitals, that are struggling to deal with the continual move of wounded from Israeli strikes. Solely 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partially practical, in response to the U.N. humanitarian workplace.
The Al-Aqsa hospital was struck a number of occasions in latest days, al-Darawi mentioned. After the pullout, massive numbers of sufferers who can’t be moved had been targeting one flooring to be handled by remaining docs. “They want particular care, which is unavailable,” he mentioned.
World Well being Group workers who visited Sunday noticed “sickening scenes of individuals of all ages being handled on blood-streaked flooring and in chaotic corridors,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus mentioned. “The massacre in Gaza should finish.”
Extra lifeless and wounded arrive on the hospital every day as Israeli forces advance in central Gaza, backed by heavy airstrikes. The army mentioned Monday it had uncovered a big Hamas website for constructing rockets within the close by Bureij refugee camp.
Hundreds have been fleeing the world, heading south. Fifteen members of the Ayash household crammed right into a van with their belongings for the journey. “Alongside the way in which there was banging, missiles, bombing, and planes,” mentioned Khawla Ayash.
Reaching Muwasi, a coastal space outdoors Rafah, they unloaded luggage, blankets and skinny mattresses and commenced establishing tents alongside different relations.
The U.N. kids’s company UNICEF warned that 90% of Gaza’s kids underneath 2 had been consuming solely bread and milk.
“As the specter of famine intensifies,” a whole bunch of 1000’s of youngsters face extreme malnourished, with some susceptible to demise, mentioned Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s government director. “We can not enable that to occur.”
Dire circumstances within the north
The scenario is much more dire in northern Gaza, which Israeli forces reduce off from the remainder of the territory in late October.
Whole neighborhoods have been demolished, and a lot of the inhabitants has fled. Tens of 1000’s who stay face shortages of meals and water. The WHO mentioned Sunday it has been unable to ship provides to northern Gaza for 12 days due to bombardment and the lack to ensure protected passage with the Israeli army.
Israel nonetheless battles what it describes as pockets of militants.
An airstrike early Sunday flattened a four-story house stuffed with displaced individuals within the city Jabaliya refugee camp, killing a minimum of 70, together with ladies and kids, in response to Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil protection. There was no quick affirmation from the Well being Ministry, which has struggled to function within the north.
For the reason that warfare started, greater than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed, about two-thirds of them ladies and kids, and greater than 58,000 have been wounded, in response to the Well being Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The demise toll doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties as a result of the group operates in populated residential areas, however the army virtually by no means feedback on the supposed goal in strikes that kill massive numbers of civilians. The army says it has killed some 8,000 militants, with out offering proof, and says 176 of its personal troopers have been killed within the offensive.
Looking for to move off a wider warfare
Blinken centered on stopping the warfare from spreading as he held talks in Gulf international locations and Jordan over the previous two days.
For the previous three months, each Israel and Hezbollah have sought to restrict their cross-border exchanges. Hezbollah seems cautious of risking an all-out warfare that may carry huge destruction to Lebanon.
However final week’s killing of Hamas’ deputy political chief, Saleh Arouri, in Beirut threatens to throw the 2 sides into an escalating spiral.
A Hezbollah rocket barrage hit a delicate air visitors base Saturday in northern Israel in one of many group’s largest assaults of the warfare — an “preliminary response” to Arouri’s killing, Hezbollah mentioned.
Israeli leaders say their endurance with Hezbollah rocket hearth is carrying skinny and that if diplomacy doesn’t cease it, they’re ready to go to warfare. They’ve expressed specific concern concerning the Radwan Pressure, the elite Hezbollah unit by which al-Tawil was a commander, which operates alongside the border.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting troops close to the border, vowed to return safety to the north.
“We choose that this be executed with out a wider marketing campaign, however that received’t cease us,” he mentioned.
Hezbollah started firing rockets shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault, saying it aimed to ease stress on Gaza. Hamas and different militants killed about 1,200 individuals in southern Israel that day, largely civilians, and took some 250 individuals hostage, over 130 of whom stay in captivity.
Your subscription couldn’t be saved. Please attempt once more.
Your subscription has been profitable.
Within the cross-border exchanges, practically 200 individuals have been killed on the Lebanese facet, largely fighters but additionally 20 civilians. On the Israeli facet, 5 civilians and 12 troopers have been killed and greater than 150 injured. Tens of 1000’s of individuals in each international locations have been pushed from houses close to the border.