A picture taken from a position in southern Israel on the border with the Gaza Strip on Feb 15, 2024 shows Israeli soldiers holding up a national flag as they move along the border. (PHOTO / AFP)
JERUSALEM/GAZA/BEIRUT - Israel announced on Thursday that its forces killed two commanders from Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, while vowing to expand the attacks in Gaza and Lebanon.
During a meeting of the Emergency Preparedness Committee, a governmental body, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that Israel is prepared to escalate its attacks in Lebanon, noting that it has unleashed "no more than a tenth of our capabilities against Hezbollah".
Israel has concluded a home front preparedness exercise for a full-fledged war scenario along the country's northern borders with Lebanon and Syria, Gallant noted.
READ MORE: Israeli forces storm Nasser Hospital in Gaza's Khan Younis
"The Air Force jets that are now flying above Lebanon have more massive bombs," he said, adding that Israel can attack 50 km deep into Lebanon and also in Beirut, the Lebanese capital.
Gallant added that Israeli forces will continue operations in the Rafah area in southern Gaza and other places.
Rockets fired by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Thursday caused a temporary power outage in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona after a high-voltage line was damaged, the state-owned Israel Electric Corporation said in a statement.
The war has so far claimed the lives of at least 28,663 Palestinians and wounded 68,395 others, according to the Hamas-run health ministry
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Thursday that a commander of Hezbollah's Radwan Forces, Ali Muhammad Aldbas, his deputy, and an operative were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli drone attack on a Hezbollah military structure in the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon.
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Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes on Hezbollah military structures in Blida, Maroun al-Ras and other areas in southern Lebanon, according to the IDF.
Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper reported Thursday that senior Hezbollah official and parliament member Hassan Fadlallah warned that Israel "will pay the price" for its attacks in Lebanon, which killed 11 civilians a day earlier.
In another development, the Israeli army said it raided the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in an operation based on intelligence indicating that Hamas militants and the bodies of some Israeli hostages are in the hospital.
Palestinians search for survivors after an Israeli airstrike on building of Rayan family in Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Feb 15, 2024. (PHOTO / AP)
Hamas said the Israeli forces forced the displaced people and staff to evacuate from the hospital, turning the largest functioning hospital in Gaza "into a military barrack".
READ MORE: Israeli operations in Rafah could lead to slaughter, UN warns
In Gaza City, Ahmed Ghoul, a commander of Hamas' Shati Battalion who participated in the Oct 7 attack on Israel, was killed by Israeli forces, the IDF said.
During the fighting in Gaza on Thursday, an Israeli soldier was killed and 12 others were injured, it added.
The war has so far claimed the lives of at least 28,663 Palestinians and wounded 68,395 others, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati had asked Lebanon's foreign minister to submit an urgent complaint against Israel to the UN Security Council over "the persistent Israeli aggression, the killing of civilians, and the massive destruction caused by Israeli attacks"
The ministry on Thursday said that the Israeli army killed 87 Palestinians and wounded 104 others during the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Palestinian medical sources reported that 10 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids during the past few hours on the Al-Zaytoun and Al-Sabra neighborhoods in Gaza City.
The sources added that six Palestinians were also killed in an Israeli airstrike and artillery bombardment on the Tal al-Zaatar area in the town of Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, and the wounded were transferred to Kamal Adwan and Indonesian Hospitals.
ALSO READ: Report: Israel frees 2 hostages, over 100 killed in Gaza's Rafah
The Israeli airplanes and artillery also bombed several homes in the Nuseirat, Bureij, and Maghazi refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip, killing dozens of Palestinians and wounding others, according to the sources.
A man checks the destruction following an Israeli airstrike the previous day on the village of Sawwaneh near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon, on Feb 15, 2024. (PHOTO / AFP)
Lebanese PM slams Israeli attacks
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday condemned the killing of seven people from one family in the southern city of Nabatieh in Israeli attacks one day earlier.
A statement released by the Lebanese Council of Ministers said that Mikati had asked Lebanon's foreign minister to submit an urgent complaint against Israel to the UN Security Council over "the persistent Israeli aggression, the killing of civilians, and the massive destruction caused by Israeli attacks".
Meanwhile, Lebanese security and medical sources told Xinhua on Thursday that the death toll from Israel's Wednesday night attacks on several border areas increased to eight, with six injured, and the civil defense teams are still searching for casualties under the rubble.
ALSO READ: 1 dead, 7 injured in Lebanon rocket attack on north Israel
The sources pointed out that the six wounded are still receiving treatment in hospitals, and three of them are in unstable condition.
The Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing increased tension since Oct 8, 2023, after Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets toward Israel in support of the Hamas attack on Israel the previous day, prompting Israel to respond by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.
The confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have killed 285 people on the Lebanese side, including 193 Hezbollah members and 55 civilians, according to Lebanese security sources.
