The Israeli official said that Saleh, who is responsible for recruiting Hamas in the occupied West Bank, was “wounded to an unknown extent” in the attack. He worked alongside Azzam al-Akra, a senior member of Hamas's armed wing, who was killed in a suspected Israeli raid in Beirut in early January, according to the official.
The attack, which occurred on Saturday, came as the Iranian Foreign Minister visited Beirut and met with senior Lebanese officials and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Tehran is a major ally and supporter of Hezbollah, which has been engaged in a low-level conflict with Israel since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian warned Israel against waging a broader war in Lebanon. He said in a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart: “Iran is against any expansion of the scope of the war.”
While Israel was exchanging cross-border fire with Hezbollah, it also intensified its strikes in Rafah in southern Gaza, killing dozens in night attacks that many fear will be a prelude to a bloodier Israeli ground offensive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that a “large-scale operation” was needed in Rafah to eliminate Hamas. He said he had ordered the Israel Defense Forces to develop a plan to remove the civilian population from the area, where more than a million people now live after fleeing Israeli bombing elsewhere in Gaza, according to the United Nations.
Human rights group Amnesty International said that if a deportation order is issued, it “may amount to the crime of forcible transfer.”
UN and other humanitarian officials warn that the Palestinians crowded into Rafah have nowhere else to go.
“Forcing more than a million displaced Palestinians in Rafah to evacuate again without a safe place to go would be illegal and have catastrophic consequences,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
If people are forced to flee north, where the devastation is widespread, they will end up returning “to devastated areas filled with dangerous IEDs and virtually uninhabitable,” says Tejada Dewayne McKenna, CEO of the humanitarian group Mercy. The Corps said in a statement.
Here's what else you should know
The body of Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old girl, who has been missing for 12 days since she lost contact with rescue workers. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said on Saturday that her body was found after her family's car was shot in Gaza. The ambulance that was sent to reach it was also bombed and the two paramedics who were inside it were killed. Hind, the sole survivor of the attack in Gaza City, called emergency dispatchers by phone on January 29 and pleaded for hours to be saved.
Two young men were martyred today, Saturday, in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza After a shooting inside the Doctors Without Borders complex He said, Quoted by its employees. The charity said that the medical staff “are afraid to move in and around the hospital for fear of being shot.” The Israeli military said its forces were “not currently operating inside the hospital” but that the surrounding area was an “active combat zone.”
Moody's lowered Israel's credit rating on Friday It changed its view of the country to negative, citing the war with Hamas and reflecting the rating agency's concern that the conflict could become a long-term economic burden. Moody's downgraded Israel's rating from A1 to A2, which remains in a category it considers “low credit risk.”
CIA Director William Burns is expected to travel to Cairo on Tuesday To continue negotiations on the proposed hostage release deal, US officials hope Israel will respond to Hamas' latest proposal, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks. The Hamas proposal, which it presented to negotiators earlier this week, has “real problems,” but the administration believes there is a broad enough framework to facilitate an agreement, the official said.
At least 28,064 people were killed and 67,611 injured in Gaza. Since the beginning of the war, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack on October 7.
Apples reported from Seoul, Harb and Bissette from London, and Brown from Washington. Yasmine Aboutaleb in Washington, Frances Vinall in Melbourne, and Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
