By The Associated Press
Israel says it has killed Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza. Foreign Minister Katz called Sinwar’s killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army.”
Sinwar was a chief architect of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that precipitated the latest escalating conflicts in the Middle East.
Earlier Thursday, Palestinian officials reported at least 28 people were dead, including four children, in an Israeli strike on a school being used as a shelter in Gaza on Thursday. Nearly 100 people were wounded in the strike in Jabaliya, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency unit in the north.
Syria’s military said an Israeli strike early Thursday wounded two civilians and damaged a military post. Israel regularly targets military sites in Syria linked to Iran and to Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group and has escalated its campaign against Hezbollah in recent weeks, after a year of near-daily exchanges of cross-border fire.
Lebanon says more than 2,400 people have been killed in the past year and 77% of public schools are out of service, either due to their use as shelters or their location in areas directly affected by the war.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
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Here’s the latest:
Lebanon says death toll in conflict with Israel has surpassed 2,400
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s crisis response unit says 45 people were killed and 179 wounded in the past 24 hours.
The new numbers announced Thursday raises the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,412 killed and 11,285 wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The crisis response unit report also recorded 96 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh province.
Some 1,096 centers — including educational complexes, vocational institutes, universities, and other institutions — are currently sheltering 190,882 people, including 44,121 families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the report says.
Among these shelters, 900 are full. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the U.N. children’s agency.
The Lebanese Ministry of Education has reported that 77% of public schools are out of service, either due to their use as shelters or their location in areas directly affected by the war.
People continue to flow across the Lebanon-Syria border. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 17, Lebanese General Security has recorded 333,893 Syrian citizens and 132,074 Lebanese citizens who have crossed into Syria, the report said.
Netanyahu says Israel has ‘settled its account’ with Sinwar
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has “settled its account” with “the person who carried out the worst massacre in the history of our people since the Holocaust.”
Netanyahu addressed the families of the hostages Thursday saying it was an “important moment in the war” to bring home the hostages. He also said anyone who surrendered weapons and assisted with the return of the hostages would be allowed to leave Gaza safely.
Still, he added, “our war has not yet ended.”