The Israeli military announced on Sunday that it had carried out ground air strikes in Syria and captured a Syrian national linked to an Iranian network. it was the first time current war Israel has announced that it has activated its military inside Syrian territory.
Israel bombed Syria many times in the past yeartargeting members of Hezbollah in Lebanon and officials in Iran, Hezbollah’s close ally in Syria. However, it has so far not announced any plans for ground expansion into Syria.
The Israeli military said the seizure was part of a special operation “carried out in recent months,” but did not say when it occurred. Syria did not immediately confirm the announcement, but pro-government Syrian radio station Sham FM reported on Sunday that Israeli forces carried out a “kidnapping operation” targeting men in the south of the country over the summer. Ta.
Over the past six weeks, Israel has escalated its shelling in Lebanon and launched ground incursions along the two countries’ shared border, vowing to crush Hezbollah. Israeli military officials said Saturday that the navy had raided a town in northern Lebanon and captured a man described as a Hezbollah official.
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The military identified the man as Ali Soleiman al-Assi and said he lived in the Saida region of southern Syria. The newspaper said the man had been under military surveillance for several months and was involved in Iranian plans to target areas near the Syrian border in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
Body camera footage of the attack released by the military showed soldiers grabbing a man wearing a white tank top inside the building. The military said the man was taken to Israel for questioning.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border with Lebanon on Sunday and said his country is trying to prevent Hezbollah from rearming through an “oxygen lifeline” of Iranian weapons transferred to Lebanon via Syria. Israel said the campaign in Lebanon was aimed at forcing Hezbollah from its borders and ending more than a year of shelling by the group in northern Israel.
More than 2,500 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon over the past year. Hezbollah projectiles killed 69 people in Israel.
On the US presidential campaign trail this weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to progressives and voters in the state who are angry that the Biden administration will continue its alliance with Israel as Netanyahu’s government presses war with Hamas. admitted some Arab American members. In Gaza.
“It is clear that the level of death of innocent Palestinians is unconscionable,” Harris told reporters.
In East Lansing, Michigan, she She mentioned the issue as soon as she started speaking.. “As President, I will do everything in my power to end the Gaza war, bring home the hostages, end suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel’s security, and ensure that the Palestinian people realize their right to freedom, dignity, and self-determination.” ”, she said.
Some students in East Lansing spoke out Sunday against loud voices calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. At least one participant was taken away after calling for a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued their offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, where the military said it was engaging Hamas fighters who had regrouped there.
A shell hit Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, injuring patients including children, hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya said in a media statement. He said shells hit the hospital’s nursery, dormitories and water tanks shortly after a World Health Organization delegation finished its visit.
Kamal Adwan and two other nearby hospitals were attacked several times by Israel during the fighting. Abu Safiyah said at the time of the attack that Israeli forces had raided Kamal Adwan earlier this month and detained numerous people, including many of its staff. The military offered no evidence, saying the detainees included Hamas members and said weapons had been found inside the facility.
But in a statement, the Israel Defense Forces denied Sunday’s attack on Kamal Adwan and blamed the attack on “explosive devices planted in Gaza by a terrorist organization.”
“Attacks against civilians, including humanitarian workers, and what remains of civilian facilities and infrastructure in Gaza must stop,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement on Saturday. “All Palestinians in North Gaza, especially children, are at imminent risk of death from disease, starvation, and ongoing bombing.”
In southern Gaza, at least eight Palestinians, including four children and a woman, were killed when people gathered outside in the eastern district of Khan Yunis were attacked by Israeli forces, the region’s health ministry emergency services said. Announced. The number was confirmed by the city’s Nasser Hospital, which received most of the bodies.
Palestinian officials said an Israeli drone strike struck a clinic where children were being vaccinated against polio in northern Gaza on Saturday, injuring six people, including four children. The Israeli military denied responsibility.
Dr. Munir al-Boursh, head of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told The Associated Press that a quadcopter struck the Sheikh Radwan clinic in Gaza City early Saturday afternoon, just minutes after a United Nations delegation left the facility. .
UNICEF and WHO, which are jointly running the polio vaccination campaign, expressed concern over the reported strike. UNICEF spokeswoman Rosalia Boren said the strike occurred while a “humanitarian moratorium” agreed to by Israel to allow vaccinations was in place.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said, “Contrary to the claims, an initial investigation determined that (Israeli forces) did not attack the area at the specified time.”
Failed to resolve conflicting accounts. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked hospitals in the Gaza Strip during the war, accusing Hamas of using them for combat purposes, an allegation denied by Palestinian health authorities. Hamas fighters are also active in the north, fighting Israeli forces.
Northern Gaza has been surrounded by Israeli forces and largely isolated for the past year. Israel has carried out new attacks there in recent weeks, killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands.
A scaled-back campaign to administer the second dose of polio vaccine began in some parts of northern Gaza on Saturday. It had been postponed from October 23, citing lack of access, Israeli bombing and mass evacuation orders, and a lack of guarantees for a humanitarian moratorium, the UN statement said.
The first doses were administered across the Gaza Strip in September, including in the north.
At least 100,000 people have been forced to flee areas of northern Gaza towards Gaza City in the past few weeks, while around 15,000 children under the age of 10 have been forced to flee the inaccessible areas of Jabaliya, Beit Rahiya and Beit Hanoun. It remains in some northern towns. According to the United Nations
The final phase of the polio vaccination campaign aimed to give an estimated 119,000 children in the north a second dose of oral polio vaccine, but “access constraints limit the chances of achieving this goal.” is currently low,” the agency said.
They say 90% of children in all regions need to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.
The campaign was launched after Gaza reported its first polio case in 25 years. The case was a 10-month-old boy who was currently paralyzed in his legs. The World Health Organization said the presence of paralyzed patients indicates there may be hundreds more people who are infected but are not showing symptoms.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. According to Gaza health authorities, more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks. It did not say how many were combatants, but said more than half were women and children.
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