Israel kills top Hezbollah commander with airstrike in Lebanon as fears grow of escalating conflict
8 January 2024, 14:51
Israel has killed a top Hezbollah commander with an airstrike in southern Lebanon, as fears grow of an escalating regional conflict.
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The IDF hit Wissam al-Tawil, a Hezbollah commander of a group that operates on Israel's northern border, while he was in an SUV, a Lebanese security official said.
Al-Tawil is the most senior Hezbollah member that Israel has killed since the Hamas attack on October 7, which sparked skirmishes with the Lebanese group.
The fighting with Hezbollah, which has been taking place at a lower intensity than the war in Gaza, has escalated since an Israeli strike killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut last week.
It comes as medical staff, patients and displaced people taking shelter fled from the main Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza on Monday, as the fighting drew closer.
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Over 23,000 people have been killed in Gaza since fighting began on the strip three months ago.
Israel has said the war will continue for many months to come, as the army tries to take down Hamas, bring back hostages taken by the terrorist during the militant group's October 7 attack that triggered the war.
Omar al-Darawi, an employee at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, said the facility has been struck multiple times in recent days. He said thousands of people left after the aid groups pulled out, and that patients have been concentrated on one floor so the remaining doctors can tend to them more easily.
"We have large numbers of wounded who can't move," he said. "They need special care, which is unavailable."
More dead and wounded arrive each day as Israeli forces advance in central Gaza following heavy air strikes. Gaza's health ministry said 249 Palestinians have been killed and 510 others were wounded across the territory in the last 24 hours.
World Health Organisation staff who visited on Sunday saw "sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors", Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the UN agency, said in a statement.
He added: "The bloodbath in Gaza must end."
The situation is even more dire in northern Gaza, which Israeli forces cut off from the rest of the territory in late October.
Entire areas have been demolished, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled, while those who remain face severe shortages of food, water and medical supplies.
The WHO said late on Sunday it has not been able to deliver supplies to northern Gaza in 12 days.
Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in heavily populated residential areas. The military says it has killed some 8,000 militants, without providing evidence, and that 176 of its own soldiers have been killed in the offensive.
