Israel says it killed Hezbollah commander and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said 'all areas' in Lebanon are being targeted as he visited border

A Palestinian woman carries her child near the ruins of a house destroyed in the Israeli military offensive in Khan Younis, Gaza. Reuters

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Israel said on Monday that it had killed a Hezbollah commander based in Lebanon's southern Baraachit area who it accused of orchestrating rocket and missile attacks against Israeli forces.

"Abu Ali Rida was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF troops and oversaw terrorist activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area," the Israeli army said in a statement.

There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.

The announcement came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border with Lebanon on Sunday, where he said Israel was hitting "all areas" to eliminate Hezbollah's network and allow displaced Israeli civilians to return home in the north.

Israeli attacks continued on Monday, killing at least four people and injuring three others in the town of Machghara in the eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon's official National News Agency reported.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israel said it also killed Ahmad Al Dalou, a member of the intelligence agency for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, without specifying the time or place. The armed group did not immediately confirm the claim.

Smoke billows on Lebanon’s side of the border with Israel, as seen from Mount Adir in northern Israel on Monday. Reuters

In the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahia, which has been in the grip of an intense Israeli siege for weeks, more people were reportedly killed and injured in the area of Kamal Adwan Hospital. Israel launched attacks on a hospital floor that "houses children", causing injuries, some of them severe, hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya told the Qatar-based news outlet Al Jazeera on Sunday.

"The hospital includes 120 wounded people, including 19 children and four newborns," he said. Israeli forces also struck the roof, water tanks and hospital surroundings four times, he added.

The hospital is the only functioning health facility in the area but its operations have been severely compromised by Israeli military operations. It has been issuing distress calls for weeks, demanding the safe passage of patients, intervention by humanitarian groups and inflows of aid including fuel and medicine to sustain its work.

Humanitarian aid into Gaza, particularly the north, is far short of required levels, experts have said. In October, there was the lowest influx of assistance since the beginning of Israel's hostilities in Gaza last year, according to figures from Israel's Co-ordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.

"This is the lowest in a long time, bringing assistance back to the level of the beginning of the war," , Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), wrote on X.

The incoming aid is 6 per cent of what was being allowed in before the war, he said.

Elsewhere in Beit Lahia, an attack on two houses killed seven people, while another Israeli strike on a home in Nuseirat camp in the enclave's centre killed three.

The ongoing Israeli siege on northern Gaza has killed 1,800 Palestinians in the past month, with hundreds more missing, the official Wafa news agency reported on Monday.

Israel has also officially notified the United Nations of a decision to ban the UN organisation for Palestinian refugees from operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel's ambassador to the UN shared a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and General Assembly President Philemon Yang confirming the UNRWA move.

"Further to legislation passed by the Knesset of Israel on 28 October, 2024, I write this letter to notify the United Nations that the state of Israel withdraws its request issued to UNRWA, dated 14 June, 1967," Foreign Ministry director general Jacob Blitshtein wrote. The ban will come into effect within three months, he added.