An Israeli drone strike on a automotive Monday close to the Lebanon-Syria border killed a outstanding Syrian businessman who was sanctioned by the USA and had shut ties to the federal government of Syria’s President Bashar Assad, in response to pro-government media and an official from an Iran-backed group.
For years, Israel has launched frequent strikes on targets in Syria linked to Iran, its highly effective regional backer, however hardly ever acknowledges them. The strikes have escalated over the previous 5 months in opposition to the backdrop of the battle in Gaza and ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.
Hamas stated Sunday that Gaza cease-fire talks have been ongoing and the group’s navy commander was in good well being, a day after the Israeli navy focused Mohammed Deif with a large airstrike that native well being officers stated killed not less than 90 folks, together with youngsters.
Deif’s situation was nonetheless unclear after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Saturday evening “there nonetheless isn’t absolute certainty” he was killed, and Hamas representatives gave no proof to again up their assertion in regards to the well being of a chief architect of the Oct. 7 assault that sparked the battle with militants storming into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 folks — largely civilians — and abducting about 250.
Since then, Israeli floor offensives and bombardments have killed greater than 38,400 folks in Gaza, in response to the territory’s Well being Ministry. It doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its rely.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million individuals are crammed into squalid tent camps in central and southern Gaza. Israeli restrictions, preventing and the breakdown of legislation and order have restricted humanitarian assist efforts, inflicting widespread starvation and sparking fears of famine.
At the moment:
— Israel focused Hamas’ navy chief in Gaza. Who’s he and what does it imply for the battle?
— Hamas says Gaza cease-fire talks haven’t paused and claims navy chief survived Israeli strike
— A suspected assault by Yemen’s Houthi rebels strikes a ship within the Purple Sea
— German authorities arrest a Lebanese man accused of procuring drone parts for Hezbollah
— UK Overseas Secretary visits Israel and West Financial institution and requires a right away cease-fire in Gaza
Right here’s the newest:
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Months have handed since Palestinians in Gaza say they’ve had correct entry to meals or clear water, and without end to Israel’s battle in opposition to Hamas, hundreds are pressured to depend on restricted assist distribution and charity kitchens to outlive.
At one makeshift kitchen in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, youngsters lined up within the sizzling solar Friday for a scoop of inexperienced beans in skinny tomato sauce over a plate of rice. It’s a typical meal in houses all through the Arab world that normally consists of hearty chunks of crimson meat, however right here in Gaza the sauce is watery and there’s no meat to be discovered.
“For the final 10 months I haven’t tasted liver, I haven’t tasted meat, I haven’t tasted fruit — as a result of they value cash,” stated Aisha Matar, a 69-year-old girl displaced from Gaza Metropolis.
She spoke within the shade beside her white steel shipping-container-turned-shelter, with laundry frolicked to dry within the gentle breeze. Like her, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million individuals are crammed into tent camps in central and southern Gaza. The continuing meals insecurity is principally the results of the shortage of assist distribution and skyrocketing meals costs brought on by the battle.
“Life may be very costly,” she stated.
Consultants warned final month that your entire Gaza Strip stays at “excessive threat” of famine, after Israel’s offensive into the southern metropolis of Rafah displaced tons of of hundreds and disrupted most assist operations. United Nations companies warned in June that greater than 1 million folks throughout your entire territory might expertise the very best degree of hunger by mid-July if the battle retains going.
“We’re affected by the whole lot on the subject of water, meals, cash for the children,” stated one father, Abdul Rahim Ahmed, who was displaced from the Shati city refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Sitting on mattresses in his household’s steel container, he shared a plate of meals along with his two younger sons. He says he cannot afford primary wants. “We don’t have a supply of earnings or a month-to-month wage or somebody who might present monetary assist.”
As of final month, the U.N. company for Palestine refugees, referred to as UNRWA, estimated that over 50,000 youngsters want medical remedy for acute malnutrition.
BEIRUT — The chief of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says that, due to the continued preventing with Israel, his Shiite group won’t maintain rallies in a lot of southern Lebanon this week commemorating the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein.
Ashoura is among the most vital dates on the Shiite calendar, however this 12 months’s solemn holy day comes as Hezbollah and Israeli troops have been exchanging fireplace on an nearly each day foundation since battle broke out in Gaza.
Hassan Nasrallah stated in a televised speech Monday evening that no rallies can be held in an space that features the port metropolis of Tyre, the market city of Nabatiyeh, in addition to the cities of Khiam and Bint Jbeil close to the border with Israel.
His announcement got here as Israel killed a number of civilians in an airstrike in Bint Jbeil on Monday evening, in response to Lebanon’s state-run Nationwide Information Company, which didn’t instantly present additional particulars.
Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 450 folks, largely Hezbollah fighters but in addition greater than 80 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli facet, 21 troopers and 17 civilians have been killed for the reason that battle in Gaza started.
Hezbollah yearly holds rallies in several elements of Lebanon however the largest is in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which is normally attended by tens of hundreds. Nasrallah provides a speech on the day that falls on the tenth day of the Muslim month of Muharram, the primary month of the Islamic calendar, which this 12 months coincides with Wednesday.
Thousands and thousands of Shiite Muslims around the globe commemorate Ashoura, marking the Seventh-century martyrdom of Hussein that gave beginning to their religion.
BEIRUT — An Israeli drone strike on a automotive Monday close to the Lebanon-Syria border killed a outstanding Syrian businessman who had been sanctioned by the USA and was near the federal government of Syria’s President Bashar Assad, pro-government media and different allied officers stated.
Mohammed Baraa Katerji was killed immediately in his SUV on the freeway linking Lebanon with Syria, in response to an official from an Iran-backed group. The official spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of he was not approved to talk to the media.
The professional-Syrian authorities newspaper Al-Watan quoted unnamed sources as saying Katerji was killed in a “Zionist drone strike on his automotive,” referring to Israel. It gave no additional particulars.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition battle monitor, instructed The Related Press by telephone that he had no unbiased affirmation that Katerji was killed. He stated it appeared Katerji might have been focused as a result of he had funded the Syrian resistance in opposition to Israel within the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, in addition to due to his hyperlinks to Iran-backed teams in Syria.
The U.S. Treasury Division’s Workplace of Overseas Belongings Management sanctioned Katerji in 2018 for allegedly working as Assad’s intermediary to commerce oil with with the Islamic State group and for facilitating weapons shipments from Iraq to Syria.
Katerji and his brother Hussam — broadly referred to in Syria because the “Katerji brothers” — obtained concerned within the oil enterprise just a few years after the nation’s battle started in March 2011.
For years, Israel has launched frequent strikes in Syria on targets linked to Iran, its highly effective regional backer, however hardly ever acknowledges them. The strikes have escalated in latest months in opposition to the backdrop of the battle in Gaza and ongoing clashes between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.
___
Related Press author Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A child boy and his grandmother have been killed by an Israeli airstrike on an condominium constructing Monday within the central Gaza metropolis of Deir al-Balah, hospital officers stated. A person on the street was additionally killed and not less than six folks have been wounded.
The Palestinian Purple Crescent stated on X , previously Twitter, that 11 wounded folks have been taken to the hospital after the strike within the al-Salam neighborhood in western Deir al-Balah.
Related Press footage confirmed a Purple Crescent ambulance blaring its horn because it rushed the wounded as much as the crowded entrance of Al Aqsa hospital. A person sat upright in a stretcher, blood operating down his dust-covered face. One other man lay on his facet, his pores and skin peeled and burnt, however managed to level his index finger to the sky — a gesture utilized by Muslims to profess their religion in God. A wounded boy grimaced as he was carried inside.
On the hospital, the useless toddler carrying solely a diaper was positioned on prime of his grandmother’s corpse, wrapped in a purple family blanket. Beside them lay one other useless man, his head and torso obscured by a bloodstained white sheet.
Later, within the hospital courtyard, a number of dozen males carried out funeral prayers in entrance of the grandmother and child. Because the mourners folded their arms throughout their chests, not less than one man struggled to include his feelings whereas wiping tears from his eyes.
Over the previous 24 hours, not less than 80 folks have been killed and 216 injured throughout the Gaza Strip and brought to hospitals, in response to the Gaza Well being Ministry. A complete of 38,664 Palestinians have been killed and 89,097 have been injured within the battle for the reason that battle started in October, in response to Gaza well being officers. Gaza’s Well being Ministry doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its rely.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A suspected assault by Yemen’s Houthi rebels Monday focused a ship within the Purple Sea as a brand new American plane service approaches the area after the usDwight D. Eisenhower started heading residence.
The captain reported that one uncrewed small craft hit twice and two different crewed vessels fired on the ship, the British navy’s United Kingdom Maritime Commerce Operations middle stated, and that was adopted by two separate waves of missile assaults, roughly 45 minutes aside, that exploded in shut proximity to the vessel off the coast of Al Hudaydah, Yemen. The ship, whose title and flag weren’t launched, and all crew are reported protected, the UKMTO stated in a warning to mariners.
The Houthis didn’t instantly remark. Nonetheless, it will probably take hours and even days earlier than they acknowledge finishing up an assault.
The rebels have focused greater than 70 vessels by firing missiles and drones of their marketing campaign that has killed 4 sailors. They seized one vessel and sank two since November.
The Houthis keep that their assaults goal ships linked to Israel, the USA or Britain as a part of the rebels’ assist for Hamas in its battle in opposition to Israel. Nonetheless, lots of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the battle — together with some sure for Iran, which backs the Houthis.
