Israel war on Gaza : Hezbollah fires over 200 rockets towards Israel
- Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it has launched more than 200 rockets and drones targeting Israeli military positions, a day after its senior commander Muhammad Nimah Nasser was killed in an Israeli attack.
- Hamas says it has shared its latest plan with mediators about a potential ceasefire and a deal for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza. Israel is examining the offer and “will convey its reply” to the mediators, Mossad said.
Qassam Brigades reports ambush on Israeli soldiers in Shujayea
The armed wing of Hamas has claimed multiple attacks on Israeli troops and vehicles in the past few hours in northern Gaza, specifically the Gaza City neighbourhood of Shujayea that was invaded last week.
The Qassam Brigades said its fighters lured Israeli soldiers into a “tight ambush” and engaged in a firefight, killing and wounding several. It said its fighters “monitored the helicopter landing to evacuate them”.
The group also said it fired a SAM 7 missile toward an Israeli-operated Apache helicopter in the skies of Shujayea, without reporting a hit.
It also claimed to fire rockets at Israeli positions near Gaza city, and to successfully hit three Merkava tanks with anti-armour explosives.
Israeli army claims attacks on Lebanese territory
The army says in a statement that its warplanes attacked the Ramieh and Hula areas of southern Lebanon.
It added that these attacks took place after air raid sirens sounded in Israel’s north today as the army monitored 200 rocket shells incoming from Lebanon, fired by Hezbollah.
Israeli minister shares post calling for occupation of Sinai
Israel’s heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu, has shared a post on X that calls for Israel to reoccupy Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
The post called on people to buy shirts that read “occupation now” and show a map of Israel that includes the peninsula, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Eliyahu retweeted the post more than four decades after Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt as part of the two countries’ 1979 peace treaty.
The Times of Israel reported that neither a spokesman for Eliyahu nor for National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responded to requests for comment. Eliyahu is a member of Ben-Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party.
Footage shows aftermath of Israeli attack on Gaza City
Earlier, we reported on an Israeli attack on a market in the centre of Gaza City, in the north of the Strip, that killed at least four people.
Video posted to social media by a local Palestinian activist shows the destruction caused in the aftermath of the attack.
It also shows the rescue of an injured child, and the recovery of a body.
Former Israeli war cabinet minister: Captive deal ‘closer than ever’
Gadi Eisenkot, a former member of Israel’s now-dissolved war cabinet, told local news outlet Walla that negotiations for a ceasefire and the return of Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip are closer to completion than ever before.
However, he said, “I find it difficult to see [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu rise to the level of strategic leadership and make a very difficult decision to stop the war” in order to return the captives, a longtime demand of Hamas.
“I find it difficult to see Netanyahu accept the deal and tell Smotrich and Ben-Gvir that this is the right thing … Netanyahu faces a strategic dilemma, either the return of the kidnapped or the survival of his government,” he continued, adding that the prime minister, in his opinion, is no longer able to serve Israel’s best interests.
Service to stop within 24 hours, Kuwaiti Field Hospital near Rafah says
The Kuwaiti Field Hospital in the al-Mawasi area near Rafah says its services will stop within 24 hours due to a lack of fuel needed to operate the electric generators.
Meanwhile, Palestinian media reported that Israeli shelling is currently concentrated in the vicinity of Sikkah School and the Emirati Field Hospital in the centre of Rafah city.
Hezbollah vows to attack ‘new sites’ in Israel after commander’s killing
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine has threatened to attack new locations within Israel as part of the group’s response to the killing by Israel of its top commander Muhammad Nimah Nasser.
“The series of responses continues in succession, and this series will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not imagine would be hit,” Safieddine said, speaking at Nasser’s memorial.
Hezbollah has fired at least 200 rockets and nearly two dozen drones towards Israel a day after Nasser’s killing.
We seek to end war in Gaza through negotiations: Sheikh Tamim
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has commented on the ceasefire talks:
- We seek to end the war in Gaza through negotiations and for the return of the detainees as soon as possible.
- We hope to end the war and achieve the aspirations of the Palestinian people for an independent state.
- It is unacceptable that there should not be a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.
Hezbollah vows to attack ‘new sites’ in Israel after commander’s killing
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine has threatened to attack new locations within Israel as part of the group’s response to the killing by Israel of its top commander Muhammad Nimah Nasser.
“The series of responses continues in succession, and this series will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not imagine would be hit,” Safieddine said, speaking at Nasser’s memorial.
Hezbollah has fired at least 200 rockets and nearly two dozen drones towards Israel a day after Nasser’s killing.
We seek to end war in Gaza through negotiations: Sheikh Tamim
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has commented on the ceasefire talks:
- We seek to end the war in Gaza through negotiations and for the return of the detainees as soon as possible.
- We hope to end the war and achieve the aspirations of the Palestinian people for an independent state.
- It is unacceptable that there should not be a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.
Hezbollah again targets Israeli army
We’ve been reporting on large barrages of rockets fired into Israel by the Lebanese group today, after Isreal yesterday assassinated one of Hezbollah’s senior commanders in the Lebanese city of Tyre.
Now, Hezbollah says in a statement, it has targeted the “Bayad Blida site” with a Burkan missile.
The group did not claim to have made a direct hit or to have caused casualties with this attack.
Paletine’s Wafa news agency reports that Israeli shelling has hit a market in the centre of Gaza City, killing four people and wounding several others.
Israeli forces have targeted Gaza City, in the northern Strip, multiple times today.
Earlier, we reported on the targeting of a school sheltering displaced people in eastern Gaza City, which killed and injured a number of people, as well as attacks on residential homes in the Daraj and Shaaf neighbourhoods.
Israeli army says it intercepted ‘aerial targets’ from Lebanon
The Israeli army says its air force successfully identified and intercepted “suspicious aerial targets” from Lebanon.
As a result of the interceptions, the army said, fires broke out in several areas – firefighters were on the spot to put them out.
Israeli media showed a shopping centre’s roof on fire in northern Acre after shrapnel fell following Hezbollah’s barrage of rockets from southern Lebanon.
Dozens of firefighting teams putting out fires in Upper Galilee, occupied Golan Heights
Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reports that 10 fires have broken out in northern Israel after barrages of rockets were fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah.
Video verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit shows the scenes of some of these fires:
An escalation, but still within rules of engagement on Israel-Lebanon border
Hezbollah’s launch of a barrage of rockets is no doubt an escalation, but since October 7, what we have been witnessing along this border are sporadic escalations – two or three days of intense flare-ups of hostilities, followed by days of calm.
Both sides are still treading carefully despite the escalating rhetoric threatening a full-blown war. At this moment, both sides are still sending messages to each other.
Hezbollah retaliates to the killing of one of its senior commanders by firing rockets at Israeli military positions and Israel responds by targeting the group’s positions – we have seen this – still part of the unwritten rules of engagement.
What does Israel want in Gaza?
While Israel has given the world some hope by saying it would consider the latest draft of a ceasefire proposal submitted by Hamas, the current situation in Gaza may be far from a solution.
Yet, on the other hand, Israel spoke in the days preceding the Hamas response about its “next phase” a reportedly lower-intensity conflict, but one that would keep Israeli soldiers on the ground and prioritise a continuation of the fighting over the release of the remaining Israeli captives.
The Israeli government has insisted so far that fighting will not end until Hamas is “fully defeated” but with the group’s fighters and other Palestinian factions re-emerging in parts of Gaza where Israel had declared them defeated, it is clear that is not imminent.
