Israel's army chief vowed on Wednesday to pursue and eliminate Yahya Sinwar, who was named leader of Hamas following the killing of his predecessor in Tehran last week. Earlier in the day, Israeli forces raided the Balata refugee camp near the city of Nablus and destroyed the local headquarters of the Fatah faction, Palestinian authorities said, as security forces continued sweeps in the occupied West Bank. Read our liveblog to see how all the day's events unfolded.
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Summary:
- Israel's army chief vowed on Wednesday to pursue and eliminate Yahya Sinwar, who was named leader of Hamas following the killing of his predecessor in Tehran last week.
- Israeli forces raided the Balata refugee camp near the city of Nablus and destroyed the local headquarters of the Fatah faction, Palestinian authorities said, as security forces continued sweeps in the occupied West Bank.
- Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said on Wednesday that it had targeted a ship identified as the Contship Ono with ballistic missiles in the Red Sea, as well as two US destroyers heading northwards in the waterway.
- At least 39,677 Palestinians have been killed and 91,645 injured in Israel's war in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. The Hamas-led October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 1,190 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures. Some 250 people were taken hostage, with about 120 remaining in Gaza. Many have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
Yesterday's key developments:
- Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed in a televised address on Tuesday that his group's response to last week's Israeli attacks would be "strong and effective", adding that Hezbollah would act either alone or with its regional allies.
- Palestinian officials said on Tuesday that 12 Palestinians were killed during Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank, as world leaders try to stop tensions in the Middle East from boiling over into a regional war.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(France 24 with Reuters, AFP, AP)
