Benjamin Netanyahu
On Saturday, a drone strike targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence as Hezbollah unleashed a barrage of projectiles from its northern neighbor, Lebanon.
In response, Israel conducted heavy air strikes on Gaza, with a recent overnight raid on Jabalia in northern Gaza claiming the lives of 33 people, according to the local civil defense agency.
Netanyahu’s office reported that both the prime minister and his wife were absent from their residence in the central town of Caesarea during the drone attack, and fortunately, there were no injuries. Earlier, the military had stated that a drone launched from Lebanon had “hit a structure” in Caesarea.
Sirens sounded across Israel throughout the morning as Hezbollah fired missiles from multiple locations in Lebanon. The Iran-backed group announced it had launched a significant volley of advanced rockets targeted at a military base in Israel’s Haifa region.
In the northern Israeli port city of Acre, a man was killed by shrapnel, according to the Magen David Adom emergency service, while five others were injured in Kiryat Ata, near Haifa. A month ago, Israel escalated its air strikes on Lebanon and deployed ground forces following nearly a year of border skirmishes.
The renewed violence in Gaza followed the Israeli military’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Wednesday. Sinwar, accused of orchestrating the October 7 attack on Israel, was seen as crucial to resolving the Gaza war and facilitating the release of Israeli hostages.
On Friday, Khalil al-Hayya, a Hamas official based in Qatar, insisted that “no hostages will be freed unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops.”
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose country supports Hamas, stated that the group “will not cease at all with the martyrdom of Sinwar.”
As the conflict intensified in Gaza, Mahmud Bassal, spokesperson for the civil defense agency, reported “33 deaths and dozens of wounded” from an Israeli strike on Jabalia overnight. The Israeli military said it was “looking into it.”
Early Saturday, three homes in the Jabalia refugee camp were targeted, while witnesses informed AFP of heavy gunfire and shelling in the area. Israeli forces are focusing their attacks on northern Gaza, asserting that Hamas is regrouping there.
Witnesses also reported Israeli shelling of the Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza. Medics stated that Israeli forces, accused of targeting health facilities, were bombarding the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza. The ongoing violence has extinguished hopes that Sinwar’s death might lead to an end of the war.
“We always believed that when this moment arrived, the war would cease and our lives would return to normal,” lamented 21-year-old Gazan Jemaa Abu Mendi. “But unfortunately, the reality on the ground is quite the opposite. The war has not stopped, and the killings continue unabated.”
