The Israeli army claimed to have killed a leader of the Palestinian group Hamas during an attack launched on Thursday against the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, during which at least 18 people died, according to figures from the Palestinian ministry of Health. .
The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that Israeli planes bombed a cafe and that 18 people were killed in the attack.
According to the army, during the attack, carried out in coordination with the Israeli national intelligence service (Shin Bet), the leader of Hamas in Tulkarem, identified as Zahi Yaser Abdel Razaq Awfi, and “other prominent members” of the group were killed. .
According to the Palestinian agency, a missile hit a popular cafe located in Al Hamam alley in the Tulkarem refugee camp.
The army maintains that Awfi planned to carry out a “terrorist operation” inside Israel “imminently.”
In a statement, the army said that Awfi had prepared and directed a car bomb attack in the Atara region on September 2 and that he planned to “carry out several other major terrorist operations” in the West Bank and Israel.
In Tulkarem alone, at least 94 Palestinians have died since January, including eight minors aged 15 and 17, according to EFE monitoring.
Shortly before the Tulkarem attack, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported the death of 37 people in Israeli bombardments in southern and eastern regions of Lebanon, which also left at least 151 injured.
The highest number of deaths was recorded in the southeastern province of Nabatieh, where 19 people died and 52 were injured in Israeli attacks.
In Beirut, 9 people died and 24 were injured. In the South region (southwest), 5 people died and 37 were injured, while in the Bekaa (east) and Mount Lebanon (where Beirut is located), two people died each.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted that the airstrikes in Beirut targeted a Hezbollah bunker used by senior officials.
For its part, The Times of Israel newspaper indicated that the target of Thursday’s attacks was cleric Hachem Safi al Din, who last weekend was mentioned by regional media as the likely successor to the supreme leader of the Shiite Hezbollah militia. , Hasan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli bombing on September 27.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have not yet confirmed whether any of Thursday’s attacks targeted Safi al Din.
One of the attacks hit an area near Beirut airport.
On its Telegram channel, Hezbollah assured that Israel lacks certainty about the location of Safi al Din, which is why it is attacking several suspicious areas where it is believed he could be found.
The Israeli army reported the launch of 230 rockets against Israel by Hezbollah until 11:00 p.m. local time on Thursday (8:00 p.m. GMT).
The latest round of firing took place around 8:45 p.m. local time (5:45 p.m. GMT), when numerous missiles were detected heading toward the northern city of Haifa and its surrounding areas.
According to the army, ten projectiles were intercepted and the others hit sparsely populated areas.
On the other hand, the Israeli armed forces also announced today that they had killed “one of the leaders (of Hezbollah) of the precision-guided missile construction project”, whom they identified as Mahmoud Yusef Anisi.
In a statement, the Israeli army said it attacked 15 Hezbollah targets throughout the day Thursday.
According to the military memo, the targets hit included several weapons production and storage centers and “other infrastructure.”
In the midst of a ground offensive, the Israeli army ordered this Thursday the evacuation of around twenty towns in southern Lebanon, including the town of Nabatieh, one of the hardest hit by Israeli bombings in recent weeks.
This is the third time that Israeli forces have called for the evacuation of towns in southern Lebanon since the ground incursion began Monday evening.
In any case, Israel asked civilians to go north of the Awali River, more than 50 kilometers from the border and much further north of the Litani River (30 kilometers), which marks the demilitarized zone designated by Israel. UN after the 2006 war between Israel. and Hezbollah, where there should be no armed presence other than the Lebanese authorities and the United Nations mission in the country (UNIFIL)
