Lebanon militants fire at Israel as border clashes escalate
The Israeli army on Sunday reported launches from Lebanon which it said targeted areas near the border.
Israeli forces kill four, damage Ibn Sina Hospital in early-morning raid on Jenin
GAZA ( Web News )
Citing local sources, WAFA said the army vehicles raided Jenin with an overhead drone shooting in all directions, including firing missiles at the Jenin refugee camp.
Israeli forces were deployed around the Ibn Sina Hospital, where a bulldozer demolished part of the hospital’s outer wall and roads leading to the refugee camp, according to WAFA reports.
Several shops and vehicles were also destroyed in the Israeli raid.
The four men killed were identified by WAFA as Amir Abdullah, 25, Nawras Ibrahim Bajawi, 28, Wiaam Iyad Hanoun, 27, and Mousa Khaled Jabarin, 23.
Tensions have been running high in the West Bank in recent weeks. There has been an increase in Israeli raids on refugee camps and clashes between Palestinians and settlers in the West Bank.
Tensions erupted after Hamas launched its attack on Israel on October 7, which was met with non-stop air strikes and bombardments on the Gaza Strip.
Israel said 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attack, while the Palestinian Ministry of Health said more than 8,000 people, majority of which are children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces waged ground operations against Hamas in Gaza on Sunday in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the second phase of a three-week-old war aimed at crushing the Palestinian militant group.
Gaza’s besieged residents had faced a near-total communications and Internet black-out as Israel’s warplanes dropped bombs and its troops and armour pushed into the Hamas-ruled enclave, with Israeli military chiefs signaling they were gearing up for an expanded ground offensive.
Warnings from Israeli forces
Israeli airstrikes hit areas near Gaza City’s Al Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals early Monday morning, Reuters reported.
The strikes near the hospitals came after Al-Quds Hospital authorities and the Palestinian Red Crescent said they had received warnings from the Israeli forces to immediately vacate the hospital. More than 400 patients and nearly 12,000 displaced civilians had sought shelter there.
Israel has accused Hamas of locating command centers and other military infrastructure in and around Gaza hospitals, something that the group denies.
“Hamas has turned hospitals into command-and-control centers and hideouts for Hamas terrorists and commanders,” Reuters cited Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel’s chief military spokesman, as saying.
He produced photographs, diagrams and audio recordings that he claimed to show how Hamas was using medical facilities, particularly Al Shifa Hospital, to hide a variety of command posts and entry points into the extensive tunnel network under Gaza, a Reuters report said.
“Hamas terrorists operate inside and under [Al] Shifa Hospital and other hospitals in Gaza,” he added.
On Monday morning, Palestinians in northern Gaza reported heavy air and artillery strikes as Israeli troops, backed by tanks, pressed into the enclave with a ground assault, a Reuters report added.
Palestinian group Hamas, embroiled in war with Israeli forces in Gaza, said Sunday its militants in south Lebanon had launched rockets towards Israel, in a fresh escalation along the border.
A second group announced rocket launches at Israel’s north, while powerful Iran-backed movement Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, said it had shot down an Israeli drone over Israeli territory using a surface-to-air missile.
Cross-border exchanges have become an almost daily occurrence since October 7, when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel and killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
Israel has responded with an unrelenting bombardment of Gaza, which the Hamas-run health ministry says has killed more than 8,000 people, also mostly civilians.
The Israeli army on Sunday reported launches from Lebanon which it said targeted areas near the border.
Israeli forces had returned fire towards the origins of the launches, the army added. Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli air force carried out several raids on south Lebanon towns.
Hamas’s military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement its fighters in Lebanon had launched 16 rockets at Nahariya, a coastal town Israel’s Galilee region, “in response to the crimes of the occupation (Israel) against our people in Gaza”.
The armed branch of Jamaa Islamiya group also said it had fired “targeted rockets” at the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona, the NNA reported.
Shiite group Hezbollah said it had targeted multiple Israeli army positions, also announcing the death of one of its fighters on Sunday.
Since October 7, cross-border violence has killed at least 59 people in Lebanon according to an AFP tally.
Most were Hezbollah fighters, although there have been four civilians among the victims, including one journalist.
Israeli officials have reported four deaths, including one civilian.
There are fears that if Hezbollah were to launch its own war with Israel, the conflict could spill over into the wider region.
Nearly 29,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon due to the clashes, according to the International Organization for Migration.