Former Hassan Nasrallah bodyguard killed in Israeli drone strike on Syria: Day 277 of the Gaza war

Thank you for joining us for today's live coverage of the Gaza war. Make sure to tune in tomorrow for the latest updates.

The Israeli army carried out a raid on the village of Toulin (Marjayoun), on the Wadi Houjeir side, residents told our correspondent in South Lebanon.

According to them, this is the first time this village has been targeted since the beginning of the war.

A medical source in Gaza reported that an Israeli strike on a school in Abassan, in the south of the Palestinian territory, killed more than 10 people.

"More than 10 martyrs and dozens wounded so far in a strike that targeted the door of the Al-Awda school in Abassan east of Khan Younis," the source reported from Nasser hospital. Since Saturday, three schools housing displaced persons have been hit by Israeli strikes, killing at least 20 people.

Israel said it had targeted "terrorists".

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati told the Cabinet that "whatever the level of concern about the security situation in South Lebanon and the threat of an Israeli war against Lebanon, it remains in our interest not to extend the war."

"Some of the scenarios circulating in the media about so-called post-war negotiations in the South are inaccurate or do not accurately reflect the reality of the dialogues that have taken place," he added. Many media outlets have anticipated a full-scale war between Lebanon and Israel once the Gaza war is over.

Mikati also confirmed that what the British newspaper The Telegraph had reported about Hezbollah's weapons being stored at Beirut International Airport "is part of the rumors and psychological warfare being waged against Lebanon." All this is "incorrect, and we are conducting diplomatic dialogues on the subject to rectify the situation."

- Israeli artillery fire targeted Jibbayn and Naqoura (Sour district), residents told our correspondent in South Lebanon.

- Hezbollah claimed to have targeted the headquarters of the 210th Golan Division at the Nafah military base with dozens of Katyusha rockets, in retaliation for the Israeli strike in Syria, near the border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah claimed to have successfully targeted a building used by Israeli soldiers in the Manara settlement, in retaliation for Israeli strikes that targeted Rab al-Thalathin.

Also in South Lebanon:

- Israeli artillery fire targeted Hebbarieh (Hasbaya district). Five shells fell on the outskirts of the village and near the village's al-Iman school.

- More rockets fell on the outskirts of Rashaya al-Foukhar (Hasbaya). A fire broke out in a forest in the village, a local resident told our correspondent.

Photo provided by our correspondent Mountasser Abdallah

Update on the situation in southern Lebanon:

- Israeli mortar shells targeted the road linking Dhaira to Alma al-Shaab (Sour district), residents told our correspondent.

- At least six Israeli rockets targeted the outskirts of Rashaya al-Foukhar (Hasbaya), according to local residents.

Here are the latest developments in southern Lebanon:

- Israeli warplanes raided the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun district), residents told our correspondent.

- The al-Rissala scouts, affiliated with the Amal Movement, claimed to have helped extinguish a fire that had broken out in Bint Jbeil following Israeli bombardments.

⚡ The identity of one of the two passengers killed inside the car targeted by an Israeli strike on a "Hezbollah vehicle" located on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon has been confirmed by security sources contacted by our correspondent.

According to these sources, it was one of Hassan Nasrallah's former bodyguards, Hajj Abou Fadl Karanbach. 

The other is believed to be Ali Sohani, a senior Iranian commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), but this has not yet been confirmed.

The Israeli air strike, which targeted the village of Rab al-Talatin (Marjayoun district) at around 2 p.m., hit a house and wounded three people, whose condition is unknown, according to local residents. The wounded were transferred to local hospitals after the intervention of emergency vehicles.

Latest developments on the Lebanese-Israeli border:

- The Israeli air force carried out a strike at around 2 p.m. on the village of Rab al-Talatine (Marjayoun). According to residents, this strike caused a major fire towards which emergency vehicles headed.

- Hezbollah claimed responsibility for its first attack of the day at 2:15 p.m. It was carried out with artillery fire against the Israeli site of Marj, facing the Lebanese village of Markaba (Marjayoun).

U.N. human rights experts have accused Israel of carrying out a "targeted starvation campaign" that has led to the deaths of children in Gaza, AFP reports.

"We declare that Israel's intentional and targeted campaign of starvation against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine throughout the Gaza Strip," ten independent UN experts said in a statement, listing three children who recently died "from malnutrition and lack of access to adequate health care."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and CIA Director William Burns discussed efforts to reach a cease-fire in the Gaza war, Reuters reports. "The president affirmed the Egyptian position that rejects the continuation of military operations in the Gaza Strip," the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

Senior U.S. officials have been in the region to press for a cease-fire after Hamas made concessions last week. But the Palestinian movement warned that a new Israeli attack on Gaza on Monday posed a "threat" to truce talks. It called on mediators to "put pressure" on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while the Egyptian delegation stepped up efforts to "bring together the views of all parties concerned," according to a senior source cited by Al-Qahera News, a state-affiliated Egyptian news agency.

Photo sent by the Grand Serail press office to L'Orient Today's correspondent Michel Hallak

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati met at the Serail with the Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), General Aroldo Lazaro, the Serail reported in a statement.

The meeting focused on the situation along the Blue Line, cooperation between the army and UNIFIL and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, on which a report will soon be submitted to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

The Health Ministry in Gaza announced a new death toll of 38,243 in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war with Israel, which has entered its tenth month.

At least 50 people have been killed in the past 24 hours, he said in a statement, adding that 88,033 people had been injured in the Gaza Strip since October 7.

"All medical points and emergency clinics" of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza are out of service due to the forced evacuation measures taken by Israel in different areas of the enclave, the organization reported in a post on X.

The Israeli air force carried out an attack on Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil), residents reported to L'Orient Today's correspondent.

Members of the Rissala Scout Association removed rubble and opened roads in Maroun al-Ras after an Israeli airstrike targeted the area last night. (Credit: Rissala Scout Association)

Latest developments in southern Lebanon:

– Members of the al-Rissala Scouts Civil Defense (affiliated with the Amal movement) reported helping to remove rubble and evacuate roads after the deadly Israeli air force attack on Maroun al-Ras on Monday night, which killed a Hezbollah member.

– Israeli jets are flying over many cities and regions in southern Lebanon, including Saida, at low altitudes.

The U.N. human rights office said it was "appalled" by new evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army in Gaza City, which are forcing displaced people to go to areas "where civilians are being killed," AFP reports.

"The U.N. human rights office is appalled that the Israeli military is once again calling on residents of Gaza City, many of whom have already been forcibly displaced several times, to flee to areas where the army's military operations are ongoing and civilians continue to be killed and injured," it said in a statement.

The "martyr" poster for Hezbollah member Ali Hussein Waisani. (Credit: Hezbollah Media Office)

Hezbollah announced the death of one of its members, Ali Hussein Wazani, born in 1989 and originally from Shaqra (Bint Jbeil). He was killed in the Israeli attack on Maroun al-Ras that occurred on Monday evening, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent.

This brings to 368 the number of Hezbollah members killed by Israel in Lebanon and Syria since Oct. 8, according to L'Orient Today's count.

Update on the situation along the Lebanese-Israeli border last night:

- Two attacks by Hezbollah against Israeli military positions. The party first claimed responsibility for a Katyusha missile strike against the Israeli town of Yesud Hameala, located about 10.5 km from the border with Lebanon and targeted for the first time after nine months of war.

- The party then claimed to have targeted an Israeli soldier position in the town of Metula, which faces the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun).

- At around 11:00 p.m., teams from the Civil Defense of the Islamic Health Committee (affiliated with Hezbollah) and firefighters from the Bint Jbeil unit deployed to extinguish fires caused by Israeli attacks on the villages of Maroun el-Ras, Hanin, Aita al-Shaab, Chaqra and Rmaish (Bint Jbeil).

- After midnight, Israeli artillery targeted the outskirts of the towns of Kfar Shouba and Kfar Hamam (Hasbaya) before extending its strikes to the surroundings of Mahmoudieh and Aishieh (Jezzine0 with more than 15 shells, the impact of which was heard as far as Nabatieh. This is the first time that this region has been subjected to artillery fire. Previously, it had suffered strikes by drones and aircraft.

People search the rubble of a collapsed building in the aftermath of Israeli bombardment at the Jaouni school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on July 6, 2024 (Credit: Eyad Bab

The Israeli army announced that it had struck "terrorists" using "the structures of a school in the Nusseirat area" in the center of the Gaza Strip during the night from Monday to Tuesday.

A medical source at Al-Awda Hospital in Nouseirat told AFP that his establishment had received several wounded following an attack at the entrance to a school run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the area.

For the third time since June 27, the Israeli army has issued calls for evacuations, which now concern neighborhoods in the center of Gaza City after that of Shujaiya, in the east, and its surroundings.

The army announced on Monday that it had "begun an anti-terrorist operation" in Gaza City, particularly around buildings belonging to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. According to Hamas's armed wing, the ongoing fighting is "the most intense in months."

Thousands of Palestinians fled Gaza City on Monday, where the Israeli army deployed tanks and called for the evacuation of new neighborhoods, while intense fighting raged under bombardment.

Nine months after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on Oct. 7 by the Hamas attack on Israel, new talks for a truce are due to begin this week in Qatar and Egypt , two of the countries mediating with the United States.

In the north of the Palestinian territory, Israeli tanks stormed several neighborhoods of Gaza City on Monday, supported by airstrikes and drones. On foot or by cart, thousands of residents fled, according to witnesses and the Civil Defense, thrown once again onto dusty roads, under the incessant drone of drones.

Make sure you read the Morning Brief so that you can ensure that you are caught up with what has been happening. 

Morning Brief

'Important' Hezbollah attack and shootout in Naher al-Bared: Everything you need to know to start your Tuesday

Good morning!

Thank you for joining us for our live coverage of the ongoing war in Gaza and its regional and global impacts.