Hamas deputy head Saleh al-Arouri was killed on Tuesday evening by an Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs, according to the group's Al Aqsa TV station. Responding to the attack, Hamas vowed his killing would not end their "resistance". Videos circulating on social media showed serious damage and fire. The blast came after the Palestine Red Crescent Society said that "several" people were killed and wounded in an Israeli bombardment of its headquarters in Gaza's Khan Younis. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
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Summary:
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Hamas deputy head Saleh al-Arouri was killed in an explosion in the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs on Tuesday evening. Responding to the attack, the Palestinian militant group vowed his killing would not end their "resistance".
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The Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Tuesday that "several" people were killed and wounded in an Israeli bombardment of its headquarters in Gaza's Khan Younis.
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Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice at the Hague to contest South Africa's genocide accusations over the war with Hamas in Gaza, an Israeli government spokesman said on Tuesday.
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Israeli soldiers killed five Palestinian militants in exchanges of fire in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the military said. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials. Israeli security forces have stepped up raids across the West Bank since the October 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel.
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Thousands of Israeli soldiers are being shifted out of the Gaza Strip, the military said Monday, in the first significant drawdown of troops since the war began as forces continued to bear down on the main city in the southern half of the enclave. Israel has been under pressure from its chief ally, the United States, to begin to switch to lower-intensity fighting.
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Israeli officials say 1,139 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel, among them 695 Israeli civilians including 36 children. At least 22,185 people have been killed and 57,035 injured in Israel's ensuing assault on the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
Yesterday's key developments
- Adil Mismah, a regional commander of Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces, was killed on Monday by an Israeli air strike on the central city of Deir al-Balah, the IDF said.
- Iran deployed its Alborz warship in the Red Sea, Iranian media reported Monday. The Alborz entered the Red Sea through the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait.
- Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Monday called for the return of settlers to Gaza and said Palestinians should be encouraged to leave the enclave. Ben Gvir’s comments came a day after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made a similar call.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP, Reuters)
