Hezbollah claims responsibility for series of attacks on Israel: Gaza war, day 247

Thank you for following our live coverage today of the Gaza war and its repercussions in south Lebanon and the wider region.

We will continue our coverage of the conflict tomorrow morning.

Hamas' armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, has said in a video posted on its Telegram channel that three hostages were killed, including a U.S. citizen, during an Israeli military operation yesterday in which four hostages were freed, Reuters reports, adding that Hamas did not release the names of those said to be killed.

"Your captives will not be released unless our prisoners are freed," the video adds.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's party Otzma Yehudit has announced that it will go back to voting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition in the Knesset, due to Hamas' apparent rejection of the latest cease-fire proposal and the expected resignation of the National Unity party from the government, Haaretz reports.

In an announcement, the party said it will "keep voting with the coalition as long as there is no reckless deal on the table," and called on the Israeli government to "raise the military pressure, which yet again proved to be the effective way to return our hostages."

Israeli media outlets are reporting that National Unity party chairman Benny Gantz is expected to declare his resignation from government this evening, having canceled a scheduled press conference yesterday evening.

Here's the latest from southern Lebanon:

* A rocket was fired at an Israeli military aircraft as it broke the sound barrier in southern Lebanon, our correspondent in the south reports, citing a security source.

* An Israeli drone strike targeted the area between Jibsheet and Kfar Djal, southwest of Nabatieh. Rescue teams are on their way to the site.

An Israeli fighter jet launched incendiary balloons and broke the sound barrier over the Bekaa, our correspondent in the area, Sarah Abdallah, reports.

Here's what's been happening since our last update from south Lebanon:

* An Israeli airstrike targeted a house in Houla (Marjayoun), completely destroying it, local residents reported. No injuries have been reported so far.

Britain's Ministry of Defense has said that a statement by Yemen's Houthis that they fired ballistic missiles at a British destroyer in the Red Sea is false, Reuters reports.

The Houthis did not say whether the attack they said they had carried out on the HMS Diamond had caused any damage, but described it as "accurate."

"These claims are untrue," Reuters quotes a British Ministry of Defense spokesperson as saying.

The Houthis said they had also attacked two commercial vessels which they identified as the Norderney and Tavvishi. ➡️ More details here.

During his weekly Sunday address, Pope Francis said he hopes Israel and Hamas immediately accept the proposals for the cease-fire and the release of hostages “for the sake of the Palestinians and Israelis.”

The pope urged the international community to “urgently” act to bring more aid into war-worn Gaza. “Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach those in need, and no one can impede it,” he said.

⚡ Sixty-four children and 57 women were among the 274 Palestinians killed during yesterday's Israeli hostage rescue raid, Reuters reports, citing the Hamas government media office.

➡️ More details here.

Israel's telecoms regulator has extended a ban on Al Jazeera's operations in Israel for another 45 days after the cabinet agreed its broadcasts posed a threat to security, Reuters reports.

A Tel Aviv court last week upheld an initial 35-day ban on Al Jazeera operations in Israel, imposed by the government on national security grounds, which ended on Saturday. ➡️ More details here.

Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against Israel this afternoon:

* Hezbollah says it launched an "air attack with a squadron of drones on the [Israeli] artillery battalion's headquarters in Odem, targeting its officers and soldiers, and hitting targets with precision." Earlier, Haaretz reported that sirens had sounded in northern Israel. Hezbollah says its attack was in "retaliation" for an Israeli strike on Khiam.

* Hezbollah also announced that, at 12:50 p.m., it attacked the Birket Richa site on the border between Lebanon and Israel, targeting a deployment of soldiers and spy equipment "with artillery shells and guided missiles."

* The party also announced another attack at 1:55 p.m., this time on the Samaka position in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills.

* At 1:50 p.m., Hezbollah said it targeted spy equipment at the Rueissat al-Alam site, located on the disputed Kfar Shuba hills.

Meanwhile, at another commemoration event, Hezbollah MP Hassan Ezzeddine said that "even though Israel was able to release four of its hostages [from Hamas captivity], Hamas still has 120 other prisoners."

Speaking from Tibnin (Bint Jbeil district) at a commemorative event for one of Hezbollah's slain members, Ezzeddine noted that this "release doesn't change Israel's military or diplomatic challenges."

Ezzeddine concluded by stating that "the axis of resistance is engaging in strategic and creative confrontations that will have significant regional and global implications."

Nabil Kaouk, a member of Hezbollah's central council, has emphasized "the effectiveness of the Gaza Support Front" that Hezbollah launched in October in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.

Speaking from Bablieh (Saida district) during the commemoration ceremony for a killed Hezbollah member, Kaouk said that "the resistance in Lebanon has increased in strength, while the [Israeli] enemy's power has diminished at all levels," interpreting the frequent threats from Israel against Lebanon "as signs of its pain and despair."

Also in south Lebanon:

* A major fire has broken out following an Israeli rocket attack that struck between the villages of Jibbayn and Yarin (Sour), our correspondent reports.

* Israeli artillery fire targeted the outskirts of Khiam (Marjayoun) and the Wadi Hassan area, located between Jibbayn, Shihine and Majdal Zoun (Sour).

Update on the situation in South Lebanon:

* Israeli artillery has targeted Khiam (Marjayoun), a security source tells our correspondent in the south.

* Hezbollah says it struck "Israeli enemy artillery positions in Zaoura, in the occupied Syrian Golan, and a deployment of soldiers around Zaoura, in retaliation for Israeli attacks that targeted the villages of Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil) and Markaba (Marjayoun).

* Alarm sirens sounded in northern Israel, Haaretz reports. A barrage of at least 10 rockets has been launched from Lebanon towards Israel, the Israeli media reports, citing the Israeli army.

Thirteen Israeli soldiers were wounded in fighting in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, Haaretz reports, citing the Israeli army. According to the news outlet, among the wounded soldiers, there is one in serious condition, three in moderate condition and nine with light injuries.

The Israeli media reports that 1,908 soldiers have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the Israeli army entered the enclave in October, with 371 of them in serious condition.

Members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) have responded to an attack near central Gaza’s Bureij camp.

Footage posted by PRCS shows its rescuers rushing a man, his face heavily bloodied, to a hospital for treatment.

In addition to rescuing four injured people in the Bureij area, PRCS said its teams had recovered the bodies of four people killed.

Turkey has described Israel's operation to free its hostages, which left at least 226 Palestinians dead, as a "barbaric attack."

"With this latest barbaric attack, Israel has added a new crime to the list of war crimes it has committed in Gaza," Turkey's Foreign Ministry said.

Gaza casualty toll update: At least 274 Palestinians have been killed and 698 injured in Israeli strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Gaza's Health Ministry says, Reuters reports.

Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians and wounded 84,494 since Oct. 7, the ministry added.

And here is an update on the situation in south Lebanon this morning:

* Hezbollah announced the death of one of its fighters, Ali Hamad, from Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil). According to our correspondent in the south, Hamad was killed in an Israeli strike on the village yesterday.

* Hezbollah said it had targeted the Israeli Ramtha site in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills at 10:35 a.m.

* Israeli artillery targeted Houla (Marjayoun) and Naqoura (Sour), local residents reported.

Cross-border attacks continued in south Lebanon as the night went on: 

* Hezbollah said that "in retaliation for Israeli attacks on southern villages and the targeting of civilians, particularly in Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil), which resulted in civilian casualties, its fighters targeted a building belonging to Israeli military intelligence in the Misgav Am settlement with appropriate weapons, resulting in significant damage and casualties."

* At 9:30 p.m., an Israeli drone dropped two bombs near the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Organization in Markaba (Marjayoun), damaging an ambulance and forcing the rescue team to withdraw to the nearby town of Beni Hayan (Marjayoun). Fires also broke out in the forest near Markaba as a result of phosphorus shell-fire.

* An Israeli drone strike targeted Aita al-Shaab at 11 p.m., according to local residents.

* At 10:35 p.m., Hezbollah fighters targeted a group of Israeli soldiers using phosphorus shells and lighting fires in the forests opposite Ramiyeh (Bint Jbeil).

* Intermittent Israeli artillery fire took place on the outskirts of the towns of Dhaira, Alma al-Shaab and Tayr Harfa (Sour), local residents reported. 

More from the Lebanese-Israeli border last night:

* After 8 p.m., Israeli artillery fire targeted the outskirts of the town of Khiam (Marjayoun), residents reported.

* After 9 p.m., Hezbollah announced it had retaliated against the Khiam attack by targeting the town of Metula, which faces Khiam.

* Hezbollah said last night that, in response to the attack on Khiam, its fighters targeted a building used by Israeli soldiers in the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, which faces Houla (Marjayoun).

* In another statement, the party said that in retaliation for the attacks on Markaba and Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil), Hezbollah fighters fired Fajr-2 rockets at the command post of the "Katiba al-Sahl" battalion in the Beit Hilel barracks near Kiryat Shmona.

Here's what happened in south Lebanon last night:

* The Amal-affiliated al-Rissala Scout Association said in a statement that it took part in firefighting operations after an airstrike on the village of Markaba (Marjayoun distruct) last night, transporting injured people to hospitals in the area.

* Al-Rissala Scout Association also said its firefighting unit operated in Odaisseh and Taibeh following an Israeli bombardment with phosphorus shells. The shells caused a major fire in Odaisseh, which firefighting crews had difficulty bringing under control. "The fire also triggered the explosion of several abandoned landmines in southern Lebanon," according to our correspondent in the area.

In Israel, Benny Gantz, the former army chief turned political rival of Benjamin Netanyahu, who was expected to announce his resignation from the war cabinet during a scheduled press conference yesterday evening, canceled his speech shortly after the announcement of the Israeli army's successful rescue of four hostages.

Netanyahu has taken to X to urge his rival not to leave the government, stressing that the time has come for "unity, not division."

As diplomatic efforts to secure a truce stall, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected next week in Israel, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan to "promote a cease-fire proposal" recently presented by President Joe Biden, Washington says.

According to The Wall Street Journal, citing sources close to the matter, Qatar and Egypt recently threatened Hamas officials with arrest and expulsion from Doha, where they are based, if they did not agree to a truce with Israel.

Saying she was "relieved" by the hostages' release, UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese also said via X that their release "should not have come at the expense of at least 200 Palestinians, including children, killed …."

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, meanwhile, said in a statement from Doha that "resistance" would "continue."

The Israeli army also denied the involvement of U.S. soldiers on the ground in the hostage rescue operation, following press reports of American support for the operation.

"There were no American soldiers, nor any American participation on the ground in this operation," Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee told Mashhad TV.

On Saturday morning, during "a difficult daytime special operation in Nuseirat, four Israeli hostages were freed," the Israeli army communicated in an earlier statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the hostages' release was proof that Israel would not give in "in the face of terrorism".

The US military said it had delivered almost 500 tons of "essential" humanitarian aid to Gaza via the temporary pier repaired after a storm off the Gaza coast.

It denied, however, that the pier — "its equipment, personnel and facilities" — had been used in operations to free the hostages. "An area south of the facility was used by the Israelis to safely return the hostages to Israel. Any such claim to the contrary is false," CENTCOM said in a statement.

Delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza has resumed via a U.S.-built temporary pier, the U.S. military has announced, denying that the infrastructure was used in an operation to free four Israeli hostages from a refugee camp in the enclave yesterday. Hamas has reported that 210 people were killed in the rescue operation. 

Hello, 

Today marks the 247th day of the war in the Gaza Strip. It is also the 246th day since the opening of a front in southern Lebanon between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.

Join us throughout the day to follow our live updates on the conflict and its repercussions.