Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned tonight that "challenging days" lie ahead for his country, and that after the attack in Beirut, threats against Israel are being heard from everywhere.
"We are ready for any scenario and will stand united and resolute against any threat," he said.
Netanyahu reiterated that the war will continue and that it requires the endurance of Israeli citizens, even though he is under pressure at home and abroad to end it.
"I did not give in to those voices then and I will not give in to them now," Netanyahu emphasized, Israeli media reported.
He said that Israel would not have eliminated Hamas leaders and fighters, destroyed the infrastructure of that Palestinian movement, would not have taken over the border between Gaza and Egypt if he had heeded those calls.
Conditions would not be created that would not only bring Israel closer to the release of the hostages held in Gaza, but also to achieve all the goals of the war, according to Netanyahu.
"We have achieved everything in the past months because we did not give in and because we made brave decisions at home and abroad. And I tell you it was not easy," Netanyahu said, announcing: "We will fight together and with God's help we will win." .
Lebanese Hezbollah has confirmed the death of Fuad Shukr, a high-ranking military commander who was the target of yesterday's Israeli attack on Beirut in retaliation for the pro-Iranian organization's rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan on Saturday, where twelve children and young people died.
Hezbollah, which has exchanged fire almost daily with the Israeli army on the border between Lebanon and Israel since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, has denied involvement in the attack.
On the other hand, Israel has not commented on the claims that it killed the leader of Hamas with a rocket attack in Tehran early this morning.
(BETA)
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting today after Hamas announced that the organization's political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli strike in the capital of Iran, announced Russia, which presides over that body.
The meeting requested by Iran, and supported by the representatives of Russia, China and Algeria, will be held at 16.00:22.00 p.m. New York time (XNUMX:XNUMX p.m. CET), announced the spokesman of the Russian mission, France Press reported.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attacks on Beirut and Tehran as "a dangerous escalation when all efforts should lead to a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages," spokesman Stefan Dijarik said.
Iran's ambassador to the UN, Amir Said Iravani, accused Israel of both attacks and stated in a letter to the Security Council that these attacks "indicate the intention to escalate the conflict and spread the war to the entire region", the Associated Press reported.
He called on the international community to take decisive action regarding these attacks and to hold the perpetrators accountable.
Israel claimed responsibility for the attack on Beirut and said it killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, but did not comment on the attack that killed Haniyeh in Tehran.
(BETA)
Khalil al-Haja, a senior official of the Palestinian movement Hamas, against which Israel is waging war in the Gaza Strip, told reporters in Iran that whoever succeeds Ismail Haniyeh, the organization's political leader killed today, will "follow the same vision" in negotiations to end the war and continue the same policy. resistance to Israel.
Al-Haja spoke hours after Haniyeh was killed by a rocket in Tehran, and Hamas and Iran condemned Israel, which did not comment.
Al-Haja also assessed that the death of Haniyeh will not affect the extremist organization's ability to fight.
The Associated Press reported that Hamas is quickly and easily finding replacements for leaders killed in Israeli airstrikes.
The killing of Haniyeh, which is widely attributed to Israel, took place at a time when Hamas has been under great pressure since the war in Gaza began almost ten months ago, following Hamas' attack on southern Israeli territory on October 7.
"We are not discussing that topic now," an unnamed Hamas official told the AP.
However, it is expected that the Shura Council - the main consultative body - will meet soon, most likely after the funeral of Hanije in Qatar, to name his successor.
Hani al-Masri, an expert on Palestinian organizations, said the choice was most likely between Khaled Mashal, the former leader of Hamas, and Khalil al-Haya.
Iranian and Palestinian Hamas officials today threatened Israel with revenge for the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran, where a large banner was placed: "Expect severe punishment."
The banner was placed near Palestine Square in the capital of Iran, written in Hebrew above a photo of Haniyeh with the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, according to Israeli media.
Calls for calm were joined by the European Union, whose EU spokesman Peter Stano, as reported by France Presse, said that "no country and no nation will benefit from further escalation in the Middle East".
(BETA)
Al Jazeera, a Doha-based broadcaster, said its reporter Ismail Al Ghul and cameraman Rami El Rifi were killed in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza City, Reuters reports.
Anas Al Sharif, a colleague of the two slain journalists, told Al Jazeera that Gul and Rifi were on a mission trying to film the area around the home of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political wing of Hamas who was killed in Iran, in an attack attributed to Israel, although that country was not officially took responsibility.
A senior official of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Khalil al-Haya, claims that the Islamist organization and its main supporter Iran do not want a regional war, Israeli media reported Reuters news.
However, he assessed at a press conference in Tehran that the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh last night was a "crime that should be punished".
The Associated Press notes that attacks on two militant leaders in Beirut and Tehran within hours, attributed to Israel, could ignite the entire region.
International mediators are working to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and to ease tensions between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah after months of cross-border clashes.
Hezbollah has said it will stop attacks on Israel if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
The assassination of leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran could prompt Hamas to withdraw from talks brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar, but the movement has yet to issue a statement.
An attack on high-ranking Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut could damage efforts to calm the Middle East.
And Iran threatened to respond to the attack on its territory shortly after the inauguration of its new president, which Haniyeh attended.
"The events in Tehran and Beirut are pushing the entire Middle East into a devastating regional war," said one Western diplomat whose country is taking part in diplomatic efforts to avoid all-out war.
Sky News Arabia reported that the body of Hezbollah military leader Shukr has been pulled from the rubble of a Beirut building hit by an Israeli attack last night and that his family has been informed.
Earlier today, Hezbollah said he was in the building at the time of the strike, but did not confirm his death.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, in a telephone conversation with his American colleague Lloyd Austin, "stressed especially at this moment that the State of Israel is working to achieve a framework for the release of the hostages" from Gaza.
He also said the "precision operation" that killed the Hezbollah commander was a direct response to the attack that killed 12 children in Majdal Shams on Saturday in the Golan.
Galant emphasized that Israel is not seeking war, but that the Israeli army is still ready to defend its citizens and respond to any attack by Hezbollah.
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Ismail Haniyeh was seen as a moderate figure within Hamas, whose role became crucial in the ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire.
Analysts say the head of Hamas' political wing was someone willing to consider reconciliation and diplomacy with Israel as the way forward.
"The more you kill or get rid of moderates, the more hardliners come to the fore, or you turn moderates into hardliners... To think that something like this will bring Hamas to its knees, or forcefully change the movement, is a serious miscalculation," Tahani Mustafa assessed. from the International Crisis Group.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with the Prime Minister of Qatar, Muhammad bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, the main mediator in the Gaza Strip ceasefire negotiations, and urged him to continue working on the Gaza Strip ceasefire.
"Blinken emphasized the importance of continuing to work to achieve a ceasefire in the conflict in Gaza that would secure the release of hostages, alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people and open the possibility for broader stability," the US State Department said.
Blinken also said the US would seek to secure a ceasefire in the nearly ten-month-old war.
Concerns over the ceasefire talks have been heightened following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Palestinian Hamas could withdraw from the negotiations. The headquarters of the highest political officials of Hamas was previously in Qatar.
(BETA)
Israel's TV Channel 12 published today parts of the last public speech of the political leader of Palestinian Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, which he allegedly gave a few hours before his death.
In part of the television interview he gave yesterday in Tehran, Haniyeh alluded to the meetings he held with the Iranian leadership and supported the new Iranian president who reiterated Iran's position on the Palestinian issue, on resistance to Jerusalem.
"We also heard his (Iranian president's) position that Israel has no right to a single centimeter of the land of Palestine," added Haniyeh.
The Prime Minister of Israel will convene a session of the cabinet in charge of security for today, his cabinet announced earlier.
(BETA)
Avenging the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is Tehran's duty, because it happened in the Iranian capital, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, the Guardian reports.
According to Reuters, Khamenei said Israel had provided the basis to be "severely punished".
"We consider revenge our duty," he added
Israel did not immediately comment on the attack, which happened hours after Haniyeh attended the inauguration ceremony of Iran's new president.
The Israeli government has not commented much on the assassination of Haniyeh in Iran, but the news of his death was welcomed by Israelis who saw it as a major success in the war against the Palestinian Islamist group, reports Reuters.
"Ismail Haniyeh eliminated in Tehran," read the identical caption during the almost continuous coverage of the four leading television channels in Israel today, the agency reports.
Commentators and experts have weighed in on the capabilities required to carry out such an assassination, while also speculating about how it might affect the war in Gaza and the chances of reaching a deal to release the hostages.
The agency reports that there was jubilation in much of Israel, a day after the Israeli military said it had killed a top leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah in Beirut in response to a deadly attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
"This is an incredible intelligence achievement. As for the execution, we can say it was impressive, whoever carried it out," Amos Gilad, a former senior defense official, told Channel 12.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not comment on Haniyeh's murder, nor did his defense minister. The government's press service published a picture of Haniyeh on Facebook with the word "eliminated" written across his forehead, reports Reuters.
The agency adds that several junior ministers, who are not part of the inner circle of security officials who make strategic decisions, celebrated the operation on social media, for which Israel has not officially claimed responsibility. Reuters quoted an Israeli government spokesman as saying they do not comment on the death of Ismail Haniyeh.
"We are not commenting on that specific incident," spokesman David Mencer said at a press briefing.
The head of the WHO says that polio has been discovered in Gaza, appeals for action The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Gebrejesus said that polio has been discovered in Gaza and warned that children in the war-torn enclave will soon be infected with the disease if if preventive measures are not taken quickly, writes Reuters.
A day after the World Health Organization announced that there are "very likely" cases of polio among the population of Gaza, the director general of that institution appeared on Platform X to express his concern about the human cost of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, reports Radio Free Europe.
"The discovery of polio in Gaza is another reminder of the dire conditions the population faces. The persistence of conflict is hampering efforts to identify and respond to preventable threats like polio," Tedros wrote on Xu.
Tedros linked his announcement to an article he wrote in the French newspaper Le Monde, published late Tuesday, in which he said poliovirus had been detected in sewage samples in Gaza.
In the article, the head of the WHO wrote that, although not a single case of polio has yet been recorded, "if urgent action is not taken, it is only a matter of time before the disease reaches thousands of unprotected children."
Poliomyelitis, which spreads mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly contagious virus that can attack the nervous system and cause paralysis and death in young children.
Polio cases have decreased by 99 percent worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and eradication efforts.
WHO is sending more than a million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered in the coming weeks to prevent children from contracting the disease, Tedros said.
At least ten Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike inside the Gaza Strip.
As Anatolia reports, local sources said that the target of the attack was a moving vehicle.
The vehicle was hit at the entrance to the city, and at least three other people were wounded.
The clashes in Gaza began after a cross-border attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7 last year.
Since then, Israel has carried out continuous attacks on the Gaza Strip, in which at least 39,4 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90 wounded.
(MINE)
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