War in the Middle East
Israel carries out airstrikes in the West Bank
Several people were killed during Israeli army operations in Jenin in the West Bank. photo
© Ayman Nobani/dpa
Israel’s military is fighting on several fronts. The air force killed a terrorist in the West Bank. Another man dies in southern Lebanon. The news at a glance.
As Israel’s army intensifies its attacks against the Islamist Hamas and other armed groups in the Gaza Strip, the air force has now also in the West Bank and southern Lebanon struck. A wanted terrorist was killed in an air strike in Jenin in the West Bank, Israel’s military said on Saturday night. A fighter plane and a helicopter attacked a command center of a local terrorist network, it was said. Shortly before, a Hamas officer was killed in his car in an air strike in southern Lebanon, the Israeli army confirmed.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden’s security advisor is traveling to Saudi Arabia on Saturday and to Israel on Sunday. It will be about Israel’s controversial military operation in Rafah in southern Gaza as well as the stalled negotiations on an agreement to release all hostages.
Report: Hamas leader wants to increase pressure on Israel
According to the US, Hamas’s military leader in the Gaza Strip, Jihia al-Sinwar, refused to reach an agreement in the latest hostage talks in the hope that international pressure on Israel would continue to increase and lead to an end to the war, the news portal reported “Axios”. Sullivan said this assessment to foreign ambassadors at a recent meeting, they said.
Indirect negotiations over a possible hostage agreement, which could lead to a temporary ceasefire, reached an impasse last week after several days of talks in Cairo and Doha. On Friday, Israel’s army announced that it had found the body of German-Israeli Shani Louk and two other hostages in the Gaza Strip. They were rescued during a special operation. It is unclear how many of the 129 hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip are still alive.
Dead in air strikes in southern Lebanon and West Bank
The Israeli army confirmed the targeted killing of a Hamas officer believed to have masterminded a series of attacks against Israel from Lebanon. Since the beginning of the Gaza war after the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7th last year, Hezbollah from Lebanon has been firing rockets, artillery and anti-tank grenades into northern Israel – out of “solidarity” with Hamas in Gaza, as it claims . Israel is using air and artillery strikes to combat Hezbollah’s positions, which, according to a UN Security Council decision, should not be that close to the border. There were deaths on both sides. It is the worst escalation since the second Lebanon war in 2006.
The man killed in Israel’s airstrike in Jenin in the West Bank on Saturday night is believed to be responsible for a series of terrorist attacks, according to the military, including the murder of an Israeli in May 2023. Palestinian reports also said the man was at the attack was killed. There has been an increasing number of attacks by Palestinians in the West Bank in recent years. Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, the situation has continued to deteriorate. According to the Health Ministry, several hundred Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli military operations, confrontations or their own attacks in the West Bank. There has also recently been an increase in acts of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.
Aid supplies reach Gaza Strip via new pier
Meanwhile, trucks carrying relief supplies drove into the Gaza Strip for the first time on Friday morning via a makeshift landing stage run by the US military. The Israeli army announced on Saturday night that they had supported the transport of 310 pallets with humanitarian aid.
Just on Thursday, the US military anchored a floating pier on the coast, through which trucks from ships can now drive across the beach into the Gaza Strip. According to the Pentagon, around 90 truckloads per day will initially reach the sealed-off coastal area via the temporary pier. At a later date, up to 150 truckloads are expected daily. The United Nations agreed to help receive and organize the delivery of the aid. The World Food Program (WFP) is responsible for “registration, monitoring the loading and transfer of the goods,” said a spokesman.
Israel vigorously rejected allegations of genocide in the Gaza Strip at the International Court of Justice on Friday and justified its controversial military operation in Rafah in the southern coastal region as self-defense against Hamas. South Africa is urgently calling on the UN court to order Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza because of the operation in Rafah that has been going on for almost two weeks. It is not clear when the court will decide. The main trial on the genocide charge will drag on for years.
What will be important on Saturday
On Saturday, US President Biden’s security adviser, Jake Sullivan, wants to meet Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, National Security Council communications director John Kirby announced in Washington on Friday. The meeting will focus, among other things, on “ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace and security in the region.” On Sunday, Sullivan will travel to Israel and meet, among others, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It should also be about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.