Israel and Hamas at war, day 94 | Antony Blinken expected in Tel Aviv, Hezbollah military leader killed in Lebanon

The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, is expected in Israel to try to obtain a de-escalation of the war in Gaza and prevent its contagion in Lebanon, where, according to a security source, an Israeli strike killed a military leader of the Hezbollah.

In Gaza, where the war has entered its fourth month, Israeli strikes continue without respite, killing 249 people in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry of Hamas, in power in the Palestinian territory.

The military leader of Hezbollah killed about ten kilometers from the border with Israel, “played a leading role in the direction of operations” in southern Lebanon, scene of clashes between the Lebanese pro-Iranian movement and the Israeli army, said the Lebanese security source.

According to Hezbollah, this is “Commander Wissam Hassan Tawil”, the highest military official of this formation killed since it opened a front with Israel to support Palestinian Hamas.

The rise in tension in this area is fueling fears of a spillover from the war, which Antony Blinken, on tour in the region, hopes to prevent.

According to American officials, his trip also aims to press Israel – which Washington supports politically and militarily – to enter a new military phase less costly in Palestinian lives, and to initiate a dialogue in the region on the post-war

Israel vowed to destroy the Palestinian Islamist movement after its unprecedented attack on its territory on October 7, which killed around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on the Israeli toll.

Around 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, including around 100 released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a truce in late November.

Qatar, which then played a key mediating role, is continuing its efforts to free the hostages still held, said the father of one of them, Ruby Chen, who met with Qatari leaders.

The Israeli offensive left 23,084 dead in Gaza, mostly women and minors, according to a new report Monday from the Hamas Ministry of Health.

The bombings razed entire neighborhoods there, displaced 85% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis according to the UN.

“No safe place”

The Israeli army announced strikes in Khan Younes, the main city in the south of the besieged territory and the new epicenter of the fighting, killing “ten terrorists preparing to fire rockets at Israel”.

In the morning, a strike in Rafah, at the southern tip of Gaza, destroyed a car from which rescuers and residents were extracting bodies, according to AFPTV.

“We were told that Rafah was safe, but where is the security, there is no safe place, we don’t know what to do,” laments a witness, Mohammad Hejazy. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have flocked to the city fleeing fighting further north.

Two journalists working for Al-Jazeera were killed there on Sunday by an Israeli strike on their vehicle, according to the Qatari channel. A third journalist on board, Hazem Rajab, was seriously injured.

Moustafa Thuraya — a freelance videographer who also works with AFP and other international media — and Hamza Waël Dahdouh were returning from reporting on the site of a strike.

The second is the son of the head of the Al-Jazeera bureau in the Palestinian territory, Waël Dahdouh, who already lost his wife and two of his children at the end of October in an Israeli strike.

The Israeli army took responsibility for the shooting, telling AFP that it had “hit a terrorist who was piloting a flying device posing a threat to the troops”, and that it was “aware of information according to which, during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle were also hit.”

International organizations also continue to warn of the ongoing health disaster in the small, overpopulated and besieged territory.

Rik Peeperkorn, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Palestinian Territories, pleaded with AFP on Monday for a “humanitarian ceasefire, the only way to respond to the desperate needs” of Gazans.

The WHO announced on X the cancellation for the 4^e time since the end of December of a delivery of urgent medical supplies to the north of Gaza due to lack of security guarantees.

The Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem, for its part, accused Israel of “starving Gaza”, calling for an opening of the floodgates of food aid, in a new report on Monday.

High voltage border

The conflict has also increased violence to a level not seen in nearly 20 years in the West Bank, territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

Nine Palestinians were killed there on Sunday, including seven in an Israeli raid in Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian armed factions in this territory where the violence also caused the death of a policewoman and an Israeli civilian.

On Israel’s northern border, the army again fired shots towards southern Lebanon on Monday morning, according to AFPTV images. During the night, she claimed to have carried out air raids against two Hezbollah sites.

Clashes in this area further intensified after the assassination attributed to Israel, Tuesday in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut, of Saleh al-Arouri, number two in Hamas, an organization classified as terrorist by the United States and the European Union. .

Since October 8, cross-border hostilities have left more than 180 dead in Lebanon, including more than 135 Hezbollah fighters, according to an AFP count.

In northern Israel, nine soldiers and five civilians were killed, according to authorities.