Israel said Thursday it was checking whether it had successfully “eliminated” Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in a Gaza operation, in what would constitute a massive blow against the group it has been fighting since the October 7 attack.
Israel accuses Sinwar of masterminding the attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, and has been hunting him down since the start of the Gaza war.
He became the Iran-backed militant group’s new leader after the killing of its former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in July.
Hamas and Iran blame Israel for Haniyeh’s killing, but Israel has not commented on it.
Israel’s announcement on Sinwar comes weeks after it assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a massive strike in Lebanon, where its military has been fighting a war since late September.
A slew of other Iran-backed militant commanders have also been killed in recent months.
With Hamas hugely weakened more than a year into the Gaza war, Sinwar’s death, if confirmed, would deal a cataclysmic blow to the organisation.
In a brief statement, the military said that during “operations in the Gaza Strip, three terrorists were eliminated”.
Israeli defence agencies “are checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar. At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed,” the statement added.
– Hamas weakened, not crushed –
Israel has been at war with Hamas since the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 42,438 people, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which the UN considers reliable.
Following the attacks, which traumatised the nation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to crush Hamas and to bring home all 251 hostages seized by militants in their cross-border onslaught.
Israel has since expanded the scope of its operations to Lebanon, where Hamas ally Hezbollah opened a front against Israel by launching low-intensity cross-border strikes that forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes.
Netanyahu has vowed to battle Hezbollah until victory, and Israel on Thursday launched strikes on the south Lebanese city of Tyre, where the militant group and its allies hold sway.
Israel also issued evacuation warnings for civilians in part of the eastern Lebanese Bekaa valley, a Hezbollah stronghold.
It had earlier struck a Hezbollah target in Syria, according to a war monitor, while Israel’s main ally the United States used heavy bombers to hit rebel targets in Yemen.
Syria, the Huthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza all belong to the “axis of resistance” of groups aligned with Iran, which on October 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel.
Israel has vowed to retaliate for Iran’s strike, sparking concern around the world that what is already a war on multiple fronts could morph into an all-out regional conflict.
– Iran warning –
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami on Thursday warned Tehran would hit Israel “painfully” if it attacks Iranian targets.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the Israeli raid on the Syrian city of Latakia targeted a “weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah”.
The Israeli military did not comment on the strike when contacted by AFP.
Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years, including multiple recent attacks along the Lebanese border that seek to cut off Hezbollah’s main weapons and equipment supply route from Iran to Lebanon.
In Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the United States conducted multiple B-2 bomber strikes on weapon storage facilities, according to the US military and defence department.
The Huthis’ political bureau said “the American aggression will not pass without a response”, and vowed to continue the group’s “support and assistance to Gaza and Lebanon”.
– ‘Total destruction’ –
The war in Lebanon has left at least 1,373 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.
Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters have been clashing near Lebanon’s southern border, where Hezbollah on Thursday said it hit four Israeli tanks with guided missiles.
Rescue workers affiliated with Amal in the southern city of Qana were digging through the rubble of several buildings destroyed in a bombing this week.
“More than 15 buildings have been completely destroyed, total destruction in a neighbourhood in Qana,” said Mohammed Nasrallah Ibrahim, one of the rescuers.
Israel has faced criticism over its strikes in Lebanon, including from its tops arms supplier the US.
The United Nations has also warned about a growing number of attacks on Lebanese health care facilities.
A new ambulance was destroyed by an Israeli strike in a southern village last week, volunteer rescue worker Bachir Nakhal told AFP.
“We weren’t expecting the ambulances… to get directly targeted or bombed,” he said.
The Israeli army has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, without providing evidence.
– Hunger in Gaza –
In northern Gaza’s Jabalia, where almost the entire population is displaced, two hospitals said Israeli air strikes on a school sheltering displaced people killed at least 14 people.
The military reported that it had hit militants.
Some 345,000 Gazans face “catastrophic” levels of hunger this winter after aid deliveries fell, a UN-backed assessment said Thursday, warning of the persistent risk of famine.
Nearly 100 percent of Gaza’s population now lives in poverty, with a “staggering” unemployment rate of nearly 80 percent, the UN’s International Labour Organization said on Thursday.
The impact of the war on Gaza “will be felt for generations to come,” said the ILO’s Ruba Jaradat.
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