Key Points
- Hezbollah commander Wissam Hassan Tawil was killed by an Israeli airstrike in South Lebanon.
- Tawil played a central role in managing Hezbollah’s operations in Lebanon’s south.
- The World Health Organization has cancelled medical supply distribution in Gaza’s north.
It said Wissam Hassan Tawil had died “on the road to Jerusalem” — the phrase used by the Shiite Muslim movement for fighters killed by Israel.
A security source told AFP that Tawil “had a leading role in managing Hezbollah’s operations in the south”, near the Israeli border.
Regional tensions
The war between Hamas and Israel is the latest escalation in a long-standing conflict.
A man checks a destroyed building after an Israeli air raid in the village of Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. Source: Getty / Hassan Fneich
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanani, strongly condemned the attack and warned against the “efforts of the Zionist regime (Israel) to expand the scope of conflict and war in the region”.
Kanani described Israel’s actions as “blatant terrorist operations”, which he said were due to “painful blows inflicted on its false hegemony in field battles, including in the Gaza Strip.”
In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.
Gaza aid organisations withdraw
It was the fourth time WHO called off a planned mission to bring urgently needed medical supplies to al-Awda Hospital and the central drug store in northern Gaza since 26 December, it said.
The International Rescue Committee aid group said its emergency medical team and the Medical Aid for Palestinians charity had been forced to withdraw and cease activities at the al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza’s Middle Area due to increasing Israeli military activity in the area.
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