In addition to one of the Hamas leaders, the heads of the Hamas Qassam Brigades, Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azam el Akra Abu Amar, were also killed in an airstrike on the outskirts of Beirut, Hamas-controlled television reported on its Telegram channel, reports Reuters.
Senior Hamas official Saleh Aruri was killed today in Beirut, Hamas and Hezbollah confirmed.
Lebanon's state news agency reported that Arouri and three other people were killed in an explosion caused by an Israeli drone.
Israeli officials have not yet commented on the attack.
Aruri, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, headed the group in the West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to kill him even before the war began on October 7.
If Israel is behind the attack, it could be the trigger for an escalation of conflict in the entire Middle East region.
Hezbollah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate against any Israeli attacks on Palestinian officials in Lebanon.
Hamas official Bassem Naim confirmed to The Associated Press that Aruri was killed in the explosion. This was confirmed by an anonymous Hezbollah official.
The explosion occurred in Musharrafiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut that is a stronghold of Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire along the border since the start of the Gaza war on October 7.
(BETA)
Four people were killed today in an Israeli drone attack on the headquarters of the Palestinian Hamas in the suburbs of Beirut, the official Lebanese agency announced, according to AFP.
"Four people were killed and several injured when the Hamas headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement that is allied with Hamas, was targeted," Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) said.
(BETA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that efforts to return the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are underway and that the Palestinian paramilitary organization's ultimatum to release them has been slightly softened, according to a statement from his cabinet, as reported by Reuters.
Senior Hamas official Saleh al-Aruri was killed in an Israeli drone attack on the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiya, Reuters reports, citing three security sources there.
In response to questions from Reuters, the Israeli army said it does not respond to allegations by foreign media.
Aruri was a high-ranking official in Hamas's politburo, although, according to the British agency, he was "deeply involved" in its military and paramilitary activities.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said the movement had presented its position to Qatar and Egypt, which is based on a "complete cessation of aggression" against the Palestinians.
"The hostages will not be released except under the terms of Hamas," Haniyeh said, as reported by Reuters.
Egypt and Qatar are trying to broker a ceasefire deal similar to the one in November, when just over 100 of the 240 hostages kidnapped on October 7 were freed.
Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant said today on the main road in central Gaza that the impression that the campaign against Hamas is being stopped is wrong and announced a "different type" of operations soon.
He said that Israeli soldiers in the north destroyed 12 Hamas battalions, but that there are still several thousand "terrorists" out of a total of 15.000 to 18.000 that were in the area, and that many of them have been eliminated, and others have fled to South.
In northern Gaza, the minister announced the continuation of small operations to root out the last Hamas fighters.
"The goal is for the enemy to tire and for us to reach a situation where we control the territory," said Galant.
He added that the situation in the south of the Gaza Strip is different and that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are focused on "what is above the tunnel in Khan Younis", where, as he said, "Hamas officials are hiding at a great depth", and that the fighting there will continue to be "high intensity".
"The results will be clear. We will end this campaign when Hamas does not function as a governing body and certainly not militarily. This will take time," said the Israeli minister and warned of other threats, primarily in the north of Israel due to daily attacks by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah from Lebanon.
Israel's new foreign minister Israel Katz, taking office in the meantime, said that Israel is "in the midst of World War III against Iran and radical Islam."
Katz, who replaces Eli Cohen as Israel's foreign minister under a rotation arrangement, announced that the country would achieve its goal of ousting Hamas.
Addressing diplomats and Foreign Ministry employees, Katz, a member of the conservative Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said his priority was to return the hostages home with "new initiatives and global pressure."
His second priority is maintaining international legitimacy for the fight against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Cohen, who is now the energy minister, emphasized his efforts to ensure that foreign leaders continue to care for the hostages.
Israeli authorities say 129 more people are being held in Gaza out of about 240 kidnapped in Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7, when the war began.
(BETA)
The Israeli army has announced that an investigation has been launched against a soldier suspected of killing a Palestinian detained in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian, described by the military as a "suspected terrorist," was arrested and interrogated in Gaza before being "placed under the surveillance of a soldier suspected of opening fire on him" and killed, a military press release said.
The statement added that a military police investigation had been launched to investigate the circumstances of the shooting.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been detained since October 7, when the war between Israel and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, began.
On December 24, Hamas called for an international investigation into the executions it accuses Israel of carrying out in Gaza, claiming there have been at least 137 since the start of the war.
A few days earlier, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Israel to open an investigation into possible war crimes by its forces after the disturbing report of the death of 11 unarmed Palestinians in Gaza City.
Israel dismissed the accusations as baseless and devoid of truth.
The Israeli military also mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza in mid-December, and at least 18 soldiers were killed by "friendly fire," according to figures released by the military.
(BETA)
The Ministry of Health in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip announced today that 22.185 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7.
In the last 24 hours, 207 people were killed, the same source said, without specifying how many of them were fighters and how many were civilians. As previously announced, two thirds of those killed were women, children and minors.
Since the beginning of the war, 57.035 Palestinians have been wounded, reported Agence France-Presse.
About 1.200 people were killed in Israel, most of them civilians, and most of them in the attacks of Hamas on the southern Israeli territory on October 7. About 240 people were kidnapped that day and taken to the Gaza Strip.
Israeli authorities say 129 hostages are still being held.
170 soldiers were killed in Israeli ground operations in the Gaza Strip.
(BETA)
The Israeli authorities announced today that they will present their defense at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where South Africa launched a process against the Jewish state last Sunday, accusing it of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the media reported.
"Israel, a long-time signatory to the Genocide Convention, will not boycott the (court) proceedings. We will participate and refute the absurd accusation that borders on blood libel," said Israel's National Security Adviser Chahi Hanegbi.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that such a decision was made at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and after consultations with the Ministry of Justice, the army and the National Security Council.
The trial could last for years, but Israel's immediate goal is to prevent the court from issuing a temporary order halting military operations in Gaza.
In a filing to initiate proceedings against Israel last Sunday, South Africa said Israel's actions in Gaza are "genocidal in nature as they aim to bring about the destruction of a significant part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group".
(BETA)
The Israeli army intensified its attacks on the south of the Gaza Strip last night, tanks and planes bombarded the eastern and northern parts of Khan Yunis, the second largest city in the Palestinian territory.
Eyewitnesses said that rockets were fired at the town of Rafa in the south and that the Jabalija refugee camp in the north was shelled, and there were also clashes in the central part of the Belt where the Magazi and Bureij camps are located.
Al-Jazeera reported that 15 people were killed in an Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
The attacks continued after Israel announced the withdrawal of some of its troops from Gaza, but also that it was preparing to resume military operations for at least six months.
In the latest operational briefing, the Israeli army stated that "dozens of terrorists were killed" and explosives were "neutralized" in the Gaza Strip.
"During the past day, naval and land forces have identified terrorists who plant explosive devices on the coast of the Gaza Strip and in buildings near the coast in order to activate them in attacks on soldiers," the military statement said.
"Extremists" were attacked and explosives were neutralized in the joint operations of the naval, air force and land forces, and "dozens of terrorists were killed, among them those who tried to plant explosive devices and others who operate drones", among others, the statement added.
During the searches in the central part of Gaza, facilities for the production of weapons and launch pads for long-range rockets were located.
It is also said that IDF soldiers "located in the Bureij camp launchers placed near the school of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA)", the agencies reported, adding that these claims by the military authorities were not confirmed by other sources.
(BETA)
Four Palestinians were killed during a raid in the town of Azun in the occupied West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced today.
As stated, "extremists were killed in the exchange of fire", as they were allegedly throwing explosives at Israeli soldiers.
One soldier was wounded in the exchange of fire.
The military posted photos of the three assault rifles on Platform X that they seized after the shooting.
Israeli soldiers entered at least five other cities in the West Bank, Al Jazeera reported.
The source reported on clashes in Qalqilya near Azun and posted a video showing soldiers hitting a wounded Palestinian in the head.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, which rules the other Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, on October 7, until December 30, 307 Palestinians, including 79 children, have been killed, according to UN data. They were killed by Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers.
Seventeen-year-old Mahmoud Abu Haniya was killed in December when Israeli soldiers shot him in the back in a raid that sparked clashes among residents, the Palestinian Wafa news agency (WAFA) said.
Last Sunday, the UN condemned what it called the "rapid deterioration" of human rights in the West Bank and appealed to the Israeli authorities to end the violence against the Palestinian population in the territory.
(BETA)
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