Live Updates
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon Wednesday.
AFP
It’s Day 159 of the Israel-Hamas war, and the terror group said its senior official was killed Wednesday in a drone strike that targeted a vehicle in southern Lebanon, marking the second time since Oct. 7 that a Hamas leader was assassinated while outside of Palestinian territory.
The fate of Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades (military wing), is unknown, but there are reportedly “no indications” he is alive after he was targeted in an Israeli strike over the weekend.
Hezbollah said early Wednesday that it attacked a base of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the disputed Shebaa Farms, triggering fire responses from the Israeli army toward sites belonging to the Iranian-backed terror group in Lebanon. The IDF has been responding to rocket launches from Lebanese territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre that saw militants killing more than a thousand people and abducting some 250 hostages.
In the troubled Red Sea and its surrounding waters, Iran-backed Houthis said they attacked container vessel Pinocchio, which they described as an “American ship.” The Yemeni rebel militia also fired a close-range ballistic missile toward the USS Laboon in the Red Sea, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said early Wednesday.
Back in devastated Gaza, multiple countries, including the U.S., are hard at work to get more aid for civilians, who are suffering the consequences of a longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Germany has said it will join efforts to airdrop humanitarian supplies to the enclave, while other nations are also collaborating with Cyprus following the establishment of an aid maritime corridor.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is refusing to bend to international pressure over a ground raid of Rafah that U.S. President Joe Biden said would be a “red line.” He said Israel would enter the overcrowded city and eliminate the last of Hamas operatives believed to be hiding in civilian infrastructure.
