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Netanyahu residence targeted as Hizbollah launches barrage at Israel

Tan KW
Publish date: Sat, 19 Oct 2024, 06:44 PM
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JERUSALEM: Israel said a drone targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence on Saturday, as Hizbollah launched a barrage of projectiles into Israel from its northern neighbour Lebanon.

On its southern front, Israel hammered Gaza with air strikes, with an overnight raid on Jabalia in the north killing 33 people according to Gaza's civil defence agency.

Netanyahu's office said the Israeli premier and his wife were not in Caesarea during the drone attack and "there were no injuries." Earlier the military said a drone fired from Lebanon had "hit a structure" in the central Israeli town.

Throughout the morning, sirens blared in Israel as Hizbollah launched projectiles from various locations.

The Iran-backed group said it fired a large salvo of advanced rockets at a military base in the Haifa region of northern Israel.

Late last month Israel dramatically stepped up its air strikes on Lebanon and sent in ground forces after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges.

In Gaza, the fighting came after the killing on Wednesday of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, accused of masterminding the October 7 attack on Israel, which had raised hopes of an end to the war and the release of Israeli hostages.

On Friday, Qatar-based Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya reiterated the Palestinian group's position that no hostages would be freed "unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops."

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose country is also a key backer of Hamas, said the group "will not end at all with the martyrdom of Sinwar."

With fighting raging in Gaza, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal announced "33 deaths and dozens of wounded" in an Israeli strike Jabalia overnight.

The Israeli military said it was "looking into it."

Early on Saturday, three houses in the Jabalia refugee camp were targeted, the agency said, while witnesses told AFP there was heavy gunfire and artillery shelling in the direction of the camp.

Israeli forces have been concentrating their efforts on northern Gaza in recent days, saying Hamas was regrouping there.

Witnesses also reported Israeli shelling in central Gaza's Al-Bureij camp.

"We always thought that when this moment arrived, the war would end and our lives would return to normal," 21-year-old Gazan Jemaa Abu Mendi said, referring to Sinwar's death in the territory's far south.

"But unfortunately, the reality on the ground is quite the opposite. The war has not stopped, and the killings continue unabated."

Netanyahu called Sinwar's killing an "important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas."

While it did not spell the end of the war, the killing of Israel's most wanted man was "the beginning of the end", the Israeli leader added.

US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel's top arms provider, said Sinwar's death was "an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas."

In a joint statement, Biden and the leaders of Germany, France and Britain emphasised "the immediate necessity to bring the hostages home to their families, for ending the war in Gaza, and ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians."

Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged Israel's government and international mediators to leverage "this major achievement to secure hostages' return."

In August, Netanyahu called Sinwar "the only obstacle to a hostage deal."

Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of killed hostage Yoram Metzger, said with Sinwar dead it was "unacceptable" that the hostages would "stay in captivity even one more day."

But she added: "We (are) afraid that Netanyahu does not intend on stopping the war, nor does he intend to bring the hostages back."

An Israeli autopsy found that Sinwar was initially wounded in the arm by shrapnel, but killed by a gunshot to the head, the New York Times reported.

The newspaper said it was unclear who fired the shot or when, or what weapon was used.

 


  - AFP
 

 

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