DEIR AL-BALAH.- An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon killed a senior commander of the armed group Hezbollah, a Lebanese security official said Monday, amid concerns about the expansion of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The development followed an increase in clashes between the Iranian-backed militia and the Israeli army on the border.
Another Israeli attack in Beirut killed a senior Hamas leader less than a week ago, and two days later Hezbollah carried out a wide-ranging missile attack on an Israeli military base in retaliation.
Meanwhile, in central Gaza, doctors, patients and displaced people were fleeing the area’s main hospital as fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants approached, witnesses said Monday.
Doctors Without Borders and other humanitarian groups withdrew from the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah in recent days, saying it was too dangerous. That spread panic among the people taking refuge there, and many joined the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled to the south of the besieged territory.
Israel says it has virtually completed major combat operations in the northern Gaza Strip and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis. Israeli authorities have said fighting will continue for many months as the army tries to dismantle Hamas and recover dozens of hostages captured during the Oct. 7 militant attack that sparked the war.
an open war that would bring massive destruction to Lebanon.
Source: With information from AP
