RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM/GAZA - Palestine has requested an emergency meeting of the Arab League Council at the level of permanent representatives amid "intensifying Israeli aggression", a Palestinian envoy said on Sunday.
The request comes in light of the escalating Israeli "crimes" committed against the defenseless Palestinian people, said Mohanad A.A. Alaklouk, the permanent representative of Palestine to the Arab League, according to the Palestinian official news agency WAFA.
Noting the Israeli army's horrific acts that have caused "forced displacement, destruction, and starvation, particularly in northern Gaza", Alaklouk called on the Arab League and its member states to assume responsibilities regarding these "unprecedented crimes", which pose a threat to the security of Arab states as a whole.
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Also on Sunday, the Central Committee of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) held a meeting in Ramallah in the central West Bank.
Several key issues were discussed, including the ongoing Israeli "crimes" in Gaza, primarily the recent Israeli killings in the north, according to a statement released by the committee after the meeting.
The statement reaffirmed the Palestinian leadership's continuous efforts to secure international protection from the United Nations for the entirety of the State of Palestine.
Israeli brigade commander killed
Israel's military announced on Sunday that a senior officer was killed by an explosive device in the Gaza Strip.
Colonel Ehsan Daxa, the commander of the 401st "Iron Tracks" Brigade", fell during combat in northern Gaza, the military said in a statement.
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Daxa, 41, came from the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel on Mount Carmel in northern Israel.
During the incident, three other officers were injured, one critically, all of whom were evacuated to a hospital, the military added.
At a later press briefing, the Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari confirmed that during an operation targeting Jabalia in northern Gaza, Daxa, who stepped out of his tank to observe the combat field alongside other officers, was hit by an explosive device.
Meanwhile, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced on Sunday that they had killed and wounded Israeli soldiers in several operations in the northern Gaza Strip.
In separate statements, the brigades reported that its forces targeted in the west of the Jabalia camp an Israeli Merkava tank with a "Yassin 105" missile and a Namer armored personnel carrier with a "Tandem" missile.
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Its fighters also managed to attack two Israeli soldiers with sniper fire, injuring them directly in the Jabalia camp.
In addition, it reported the destruction of an Israeli Namer armored personnel carrier with a "Shawah" explosive device in the northwest of Gaza City.
The brigades noted that its fighters infiltrated behind Israeli troops that advanced east of the Jabalia camp on Saturday night. They successfully targeted two Israeli armored personnel carriers using a "Shawah" explosive device and a "Yassin 105" missile, resulting in fatalities and injuries among the troops.
The Israeli army continues its ground operation in the Jabalia camp, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza, for the 16th consecutive day, claiming the operation aims to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping to launch further attacks.
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Israeli military spokesman Avichai Adraee said on the social media platform X that Division 162 is continuing its operations in northern Gaza, eliminating dozens in confrontations and from the air, destroying numerous infrastructures, and confiscating large quantities of weapons.
The Hamas-run Gaza health authorities on Sunday said the Palestinian death toll in an Israeli airstrike on a residential area in the Beit Lahia area in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday evening has risen to 87.
The airstrike also caused more than 40 injuries, including critical cases, the authorities said in a press statement.
Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses told Xinhua that the Israeli raids in the region resulted in the destruction of an entire residential area.
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On Saturday night, the media office of the Hamas-run Gaza government reported an initial estimate of 73 fatalities, with numerous others wounded or missing, the majority of whom were women and children.
Adraee, the Israeli army spokesman, said on Sunday in a press statement after the attack that the number published from the media office was "exaggerated" and did not match the information provided by the Israeli army, noting that the army was still "investigating" the incident.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that IDF troops continue operations in the northern, southern, and central parts of the Gaza Strip, noting that over the past day, the Israeli Air Force struck about 175 targets in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
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Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 42,603, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Sunday.
