Israel-Hamas War
Israeli warplanes carried out their most intense air strikes on southern Lebanon in nearly a year of war late on Thursday, targeting rocket launchers directed towards Israel. Israel said it is shifting its war objectives to its northern border with Lebanon after carrying out two days of attacks on sabotaged personal electronics devices used by Hezbollah. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a speech on Thursday vowed revenge for the blasts and said that the group would continue its attacks on Israel in support of fellow Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Read FRANCE 24’s liveblog for all the latest developments.
Issued on:
2 min
Summary:
-
Israeli warplanes carried out late on Thursday their heaviest aerial strikes on southern Lebanon in nearly a year of war, striking hundreds of multiple rocket launcher barrels in southern Lebanon that were set to be fired immediately toward Israel.
-
Hezbollah said on Thursday it launched at least 17 attacks on military sites in northern Israel as the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to keep up daily strikes on Israel despite this week’s deadly sabotage of its members’ communication devices.
-
Taiwan said that components used in thousands of pagers that detonated in Lebanon on Tuesday were not made in Taiwan. The president of Taiwanese pager company, Apollo Gold, which was linked to the blasts was questioned and released by Taiwanese authorities late Thursday night.
-
At least 41,252 Palestinians have been killed and 95,497 wounded in Israel‘s war in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. The Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel 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.
-
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday acknowledged that his group suffered an “unprecedented blow” with the attacks targeting his group’s electronic devices. But he vowed to keep up daily strikes on Israel in his first speech since this weeks attacks in Lebanon.
-
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat Thursday near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said.
-
It is widely believed that Israel orchestrated explosive attacks targeting hand-held electronic devices used by Hezbollah but the blasts have also killed civilians, including two children. Explosions on Tuesday targeting pagers killed 12 people and exploding walkie-talkies and other electronics on Wednesday killed 25 people, taking the total death toll to 37, according to Lebanese health ministry figures. Roughly 3,000 people were wounded over two days of attacks.
-
Japanese firm Icom said that it stopped producing the model of two-way radios reportedly used in Wednesday’s blasts in Lebanon around 10 years ago. The company said it last exported the devices overseas, including to the Middle East, in 2014.
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 AP, AFP, Reuters)
