Beirut [Lebanon], July 15 (ANI): Israeli air raids targeted Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley and Syria’s southern Suwayda region on Monday, even as relentless Israeli bombardment of Gaza pushed the Palestinian death toll past 58,000, Al Jazeera reported.
Syria’s state news agency confirmed that Israeli strikes hit locations in Suwayda, while the Israeli military said it had carried out attacks on targets in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. The cross-border strikes come amid Israel’s intensifying offensive in Gaza, where at least 78 Palestinians were killed on Sunday alone, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry figures cited by Al Jazeera.
Since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 58,386 Palestinians and wounded 139,077, Gaza health officials said. In Israel, approximately 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 kidnapped during the Hamas-led attacks that triggered the conflict.
In the occupied West Bank, violence also escalated, with Israeli settlers reportedly torching Palestinian farmland and vehicles in the village of Burqa just hours after church leaders and diplomats from over 20 countries gathered in nearby Taybeh to appeal for peace.
The UN human rights office said it has documented at least 875 killings at aid distribution points and along humanitarian convoy routes in Gaza over the past six weeks, with most deaths occurring near sites operated by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Amid mounting international concern over the humanitarian toll, Israel announced the targeted killing of seven senior Hamas operatives in an airstrike last week. All seven had been released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange and deported to Gaza, where they allegedly resumed operational roles in Hamas’s Judea and Samaria “headquarters,” recruiting and coordinating attacks on Israeli targets.
Among those killed were Riyad Asila and Bassem Abu Sanina, convicted in the late 1990s for fatal stabbings of Israelis, and Mahmoud Saria, convicted in the 1996 killing of IDF Staff Sgt. Ehud Tal. The Shin Bet said the seven “had a long record of murderous activity and continued to direct attacks from Gaza using their experience and connections.”
The IDF also confirmed the death of Muhammad Adin, commander of Hamas’s Daraj Tuffah battalion, in a separate strike northeast of Gaza City. Adin was reportedly accompanied by other senior Hamas commanders. His killing follows the recent eliminations of Muhammad Sinwar, brother of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Rafah Brigade commander Muhammad Shabana, and combat support chief Hakam al-Issa.
As the war enters its tenth month, about 50 hostages remain in Gaza, of whom roughly 30 are believed to be dead, Israeli officials said. Hamas’s October 7 assault killed 1,180 people in Israel and took 252 hostages, triggering the ongoing conflict.
The rising civilian casualties and Israel’s expanding military operations into Lebanon and Syria have intensified calls from the international community for restraint and renewed efforts toward a ceasefire.
(ANI)
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