Gaza | Israel announces death of high-ranking military officer

(Jerusalem) Israeli authorities announced on Sunday the death of a high-ranking military officer in the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll to 358 soldiers since the start of the ground military offensive in the Palestinian territory on October 27. 2023.

Colonel Ahsan Daksa, commander of the 401 Armored Brigade, was 41 years old and a member of the Druze community.

He “was killed in action while fighting against Hamas terrorists in Gaza,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement.

Army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said he was killed while near his tank in northern Gaza.

Israel bombs Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, dozens dead in Gaza

The Israeli army carried out airstrikes on Sunday on dozens of Hezbollah targets in Beirut and southern Lebanon and continued its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, where a strike killed 73 people the day before according to emergency services.

Read “Lebanon: Syrian refugees stuck in the crossfire”

At war on two fronts against these Islamist movements supported by Iran, Israel announced that it had targeted a Hezbollah “command center” in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital and carried out airstrikes on dozens of localities in the south of the Lebanon.

These strikes come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hezbollah of trying to assassinate him in a drone attack on his residence.

After a year of border firefights with Hezbollah and after weakening Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli army moved the bulk of its operations to Lebanon, where it has been carrying out intense strikes against the Islamist movement since September 23 and a land offensive from the 30th in the south.

More than 50 localities were bombed on Sunday in this region bordering Israel, according to the Lebanese news agency ANI, which also reported that the Israeli army was “dynatomizing” houses in villages there.

According to ANI, the border village of Khiam was bombed 14 times in a quarter of an hour. The Lebanese army, which is not taking part in the conflict, announced the death of three soldiers in an Israeli strike in the south.

Visiting troops in northern Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant assured that the army was “destroying” Hezbollah “in all the villages along the border.” Israel says it wants to neutralize the Islamist movement there to allow the return home of some 60,000 inhabitants of northern Israel, displaced by its incessant rocket fire.

In addition, ANI reported an Israeli strike on Sunday evening in eastern Lebanon, against a subsidiary of a financial group linked to Hezbollah, whose offices were also bombed in the southern suburbs of Beirut, after Israeli evacuation orders.

“Serious error”

Hezbollah, for its part, claimed responsibility for rocket attacks in northern Israel, targeting in particular three military bases near Haifa and Safed, as well as against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

At least 1,454 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP count based on official data, and in mid-October, the UN recorded nearly 700,000 displaced people.

The secretary general of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit is due to meet Monday in Beirut with Lebanese leaders, his organization announced.

On Saturday, Mr. Netanyahu accused the Lebanese Shiite movement of having attempted to assassinate him after a drone strike which targeted, in his absence, his private residence in Caesarea, a coastal city in central Israel.

Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for the shooting, but the Iranian mission to the UN said it was behind the attack.

Hezbollah “made a grave mistake,” the prime minister warned: “I say to the Iranians and their partners in the Axis of Evil: anyone who tries to harm the citizens of Israel will pay a high price.”

These accusations amplify fears of an escalation in the Middle East, as Israel threatened to retaliate for a missile attack launched on 1^is October by Iran, its sworn enemy.

“To die of hunger”

At the same time, the Israeli army is intensifying its offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, whose leader, Yahya Sinouar, it killed on Wednesday.

She announced on Sunday that she was carrying out operations in “the north, center and south” and having “eliminated dozens of terrorists”.

The day before, it carried out a strike which left 73 dead “and a large number injured” in Beit Lahia, in the north, according to Civil Defense.

On Sunday, families mourned their loved ones lying in white shrouds at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of the main ones in the area, where the injured were treated on the ground.

Israel claimed to have targeted a Hamas “target” and assured that the assessment of the Gaza authorities “did not correspond” to the information in its possession.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned a “heinous massacre”.

Before this strike, Civil Defense had reported “more than 400 deaths” in northern Gaza since the start of the offensive launched by the Israeli army on October 6 in the Jabalia sector, where it claims that Hamas rebuilds his strength.

Palestinians are experiencing “indescribable horrors” in the area, the interim head of the UN for humanitarian aid, Joyce Msuya, denounced on Saturday.

“We are trapped, without food, water and medicine, and risk dying of hunger in the middle of the rubble and destruction,” Ahmad Saleh, a 36-year-old Palestinian, told AFP in Beit Lahia.

Hamas, in power since 2007 in Gaza, affirmed that it would continue to fight despite the death of its leader, Yahya Sinouar, considered the mastermind of the unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023 which sparked the war.

This attack led to the death of 1,206 people in Israel, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures, including hostages killed or died in captivity.

Of the 251 people kidnapped during the attack, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.

At least 42,603 ​​Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to the latest data from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.

Cyril Julien and Layal Abou Rahal in Beirut, Agence France-Presse