Palestinian medical officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 46 people in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, including 11 at a makeshift cafeteria in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone. In Lebanon, warplanes struck Beirut's southern suburbs and killed 18 people elsewhere in the country on Tuesday. The latest bombardment came as the United States said it would not reduce its military support for Israel after a deadline passed for allowing more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The State Department cited some progress, even as international aid groups said Israel had failed to meet the U.S. demands.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas says it has chosen Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, as its new leader. The choice of Sinwar, a secretive figure who leads Hamas' hardliners and is close to Iran, was a defiant step. Sinwar is at the top of Israel's kill list as it seeks to destroy Hamas and its leadership after the Oct. 7 attack. He replaces Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran last week in a presumed Israeli strike. Unlike Haniyeh, who had lived in exile in Qatar for years, Sinwar has remained in Gaza.
The Israeli military says it has confirmed that the head of Hamas' military wing was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July. The announcement about Mohammed Deif comes a day after the assassination of Hamas' political chief in an airstrike in Iran. The killings have left U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators scrambling to salvage talks for a cease-fire deal in Gaza, even as international officials try to avert an all-out regional war. Hamas had no immediate comment on Israel's announcement of Deif's death. The militant group had previously said he survived the airstrike.
Palestinian health officials say an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced families in central Gaza killed at least 33 people including 23 women and children. The Israeli military claims the school was being used as a Hamas compound. The strike early Thursday came after the military announced a new ground and air assault in several refugee camps in central Gaza, pursuing Hamas militants it says have regrouped there. Witnesses and hospital officials said the predawn strike hit the al-Sardi School run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees known by the acronym UNRWA. They said the school was filled with Palestinians who had fled Israeli offensives and bombardment in northern Gaza.
