Hezbollah deputy declares 'new phase' of battle with Israel

Israeli media has quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that around half of the roughly 100 hostages held in Gaza, are still alive.

The Times of Israel reported that Netanyahu told lawmakers in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that "according to the information we have, half of the [97 remaining] hostages in Gaza are alive."

There has been no official confirmation of the number as the committee met in a closed session.

Hamas led a terror attack in Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people in Israel. They also took about 250 people as hostages into Gaza, triggering the ongoing conflict. .

A short truce at the end of November saw Hamas exchange 105 hostages in return for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Since then, the bodies of several hostages have been discovered. Hamas blames Israeli strikes for some of the deaths while Israel has accused Hamas militants of executing the hostages. 

Protesters in Israeli cities have regularly taken to the streets in an effort to pressure Netanyahu into agreeing to a cease-fire deal that would also secure the release of the remaining hostages.

Iranian authorities on Sunday announced that 12 people had been arrested for "collaborating" with Israel, according to state-run media and a statement by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Iran's Fars news agency reported that the country's Revolutionary Guard "arrested 12 collaborators ... in six provinces." 

The dates and locations of the arrests were not specified, but Fars reported that the accused had been "planning to take action against the security" of Iran.

Tehran has accused Israel of orchestrating sabotage operations at a number of its nuclear sites and assassinating several Iranian scientists.

The chief of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Herzi Halevi, on Sunday vowed to "hit" anyone threatening Israelis.

Halevi said the current operation targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon, was a "message" to Israel's enemies in the region and elsewhere.

"This operation against Hezbollah's chain of command is a clear message to Hezbollah, but it is also a message to the Middle East and beyond: We will hit anyone who threatens the citizens of the state of Israel," Halevi said in a video statement.

Halevi said that hundreds of targets had been hit in Lebanon in recent days and claimed that Hezbollah was putting rocket launchers near Lebanese civilians and placing them at risk.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah, meanwhile, vowed to continue fighting Israel and support its ally, Hamas in Gaza.

"We follow the front of support and confrontation... we will kill them and fight from where they expect and from where they do not expect," said Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Kassem, referring to Israelis.

He was speaking at the funeral of Ibrahim Akil, a key commander in the movement.

Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Kassem said the group is now in a "new phase" of combat with Israel.

During a funeral of a top Hezbollah commander in southern Beirut, Kassem said Hezbollah is now engaged in an "open-ended battle of reckoning with Israel."  

Fighting with Hezbollah means that Israel is becoming embroiled in another military escalation as it also continues its operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which controls Gaza, is deemed a terror organization by the US, Germany and other countries. 

Hamas has praised Hezbollah's rocket strikes at Israel, saying it salutes "the resistance fighters in Lebanon for their resilience and bravery."

Hamas lauded Hezbollah's determination "to continue fighting in support of the Palestinian people and their resistance in Gaza and the West Bank."  

Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera criticized an Israeli raid on its Ramallah office in the occupied West Bank. Earlier on Sunday, Israeli forces entered the network's premises in the Palestinian city, ordering staff to leave and imposing a 45-day closure of the Ramallah office. 

Al Jazeera said it "vehemently condemns and denounces this criminal act"  and called the raid "not only an attack on Al Jazeera but an affront to press freedom and the very principles of journalism."

The broadcaster also rejected what it called "unfounded allegations presented by Israeli authorities to justify these illegal raids."

The Israeli military defended its actions and said Al Jazeera's office was "being used to incite terror, to support terrorist activities and that the channel's broadcasts endanger the security and public order in both the area and the State of Israel as a whole."

Israel in May barred Al Jazeera from broadcasting on Israeli territory and also launched a raid on a Jerusalem hotel that Al Jazeera used for its network operations. Al Jazeera also strongly condemned that move.  

An Israeli airstrike on a former school turned shelter in Gaza City left seven people dead, Palestinian officials said.

A spokesperson for the Hamas-run civil defense agency also said there was "a number of wounded, including serious cases, as a result of Israeli shelling of Kafr Qasim school."

The Kafr Qasim school belongs to the Al-Shati refugee camp, which lies in northern Gaza on the Mediterranean coast. The civil defense agency says hundreds of displaced Palestinians were sheltering there at the time of the strike.    

Israel, meanwhile, said it was targeting Palestinian militants who were present at the school grounds.

The Israeli military claimed it took steps to "to mitigate the risk of harm to uninvolved civilians" such as the use of "precise munitions."
 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a televised statement, where he said the Israeli military "landed a series of blows on Hezbollah" over the past few days. 

"If Hezbollah did not get the message, I assure you it will get the message," Netanyahu said. 

"No country can tolerate attacks on its citizens, attacks on its cities. And we, the State of Israel, will not tolerate it either," he remarked.    

Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed Shiite political party and paramilitary organization in Lebanon.

Israel, along with the US, Germany and several Arab nations, deem Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The EU, meanwhile, considers Hezbollah's armed wing a terrorist group.     

The Israeli Air Force said that fighter jets on Sunday "attacked dozens of targets" this morning belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, "including launchers and military sites." 

The Israeli military said it continues to "damage and degrade" Hezbollah's capabilities and military infrastructure.

The military said that this comes as 150 rockets and other projectiles were launched at Israel from Lebanon overnight, but many of them were intercepted. 

Over 100 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel early Sunday, most of which were intercepted by Israeli air defense systems, the Israeli military said.

Some of the rockets landed near the northern city of Haifa where at least three people were wounded and cars and buildings were damaged, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Several buildings were struck, including a house near the Israeli city of Haifa, according to Reuters.

Rescue teams treated wounded but there were no reports of deaths. Residents had been instructed to stay near bomb shelters and safe rooms.

Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli Ramat David Airbase with successive barrages of missiles, in the deepest strikes it has claimed since hostilities began.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later added that fighter jets continued to strike "dozens of Hezbollah terror targets, including launchers and military structures in dozens of areas in southern Lebanon" on Sunday.

The IDF on Saturday struck some 290 sites in Lebanon — one of the most intense since the October 7 attacks.

 

Israel's Health Ministry instructed hospitals in the northern part of the country to shift their operations to facilities with extra protection from rocket and missile fire.

The ministry was acting on instructions from the Israel Defense Forces, according to a report by the Times of Israel.

Rambam hospital in Haifa —  where overnight strikes damaged buildings and injured at least three people —  will transfer patients to its secure, underground facility, the ministry added.

All elective procedures have been canceled.

Israeli forces raided the office of Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order, the Qatari broadcaster said.

Al Jazeera broadcast live footage of Israeli soldiers entering its premises in Ramallah.

The footage shows an Israeli soldier telling West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari about a court ruling for "closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days."

"I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment," the soldier adds.

The Israeli government last week announced it was revoking the press credentials of Al Jazeera journalists in the country, four months after banning the channel from operating inside Israel.

 

mk/rm (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)