UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said one of its soldiers was killed this morning after its position in the town of Marjeyoun in southern Lebanon was hit by mortar fire.
Two additional soldiers were wounded in the incident. UNIFIL said it has launched an investigation to determine the circumstances of the attack.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu updated the restricted security cabinet ministers this week that a cease-fire agreement in the north could potentially be reached within a matter of a few days.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz visiting Israeli troops deployed on the border with Lebanon, on Friday.Credit: Maayan Toef/GPO
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz visiting Israeli troops deployed on the border with Lebanon, on Friday.Credit: Maayan Toef/GPO
According to a source familiar with the details, during the restricted cabinet meeting, the IDF and several ministers, including the defense and national security ministers, expressed opposition to stopping the campaign at the current point in time and requested expanding operations against Hezbollah.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said in a message on Thursday that Iran's enemies, having been defeated on the battlefield, were now seeking to undermine public resilience and sow internal divisions.
Khamenei called for national unity in the face of those threats and said any action that created pessimism or frustration among the public amounted to helping the enemy.
Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran in 2016.Credit: Amir Kholousi/ReutersIran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran in 2016.Credit: Amir Kholousi/Reuters
The message was read on his behalf during ceremonies marking the anniversary of the death of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ruhollah Khomeini, as well as a major Shi'ite holiday.
The Israeli military issued an evacuation order for the entirety of southern Lebanon, saying the war hasn't ended.
"The fighting in southern Lebanon continues as the IDF continues to target Hezbollah facilities and infrastructure located in your villages and nearby," the military's Arabic-language Spokesman Avochay Adraee said in a post on X.
"To ensure your safety, refrain from heading south of the Zahrani River until further notice," he wrote. "Anyone heading south puts their life in danger."
Early Thursday morning, the United States, Israel and Lebanon issued a joint statement, announcing that the sides have reached a cease-fire agreement.
Israeli strikes killed at least nine Palestinians, including five members of the same family, in separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics at Al-Shifa Hospital said.
Medics in Gaza said Israeli planes launched strikes on four apartments, including the family's home, before dawn. At least 15 other people were wounded.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attacks.
Footage showed a blown-out building with furniture damaged and burnt. Debris had been flung across the road by the blast.
A video circulated on Palestinian social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed people going into one apartment with blankets to recover bodies.
"We were woken up by the strike at 2:30 A.M. We found pieces of flesh and people were sleeping. They say the war is over, but the war is not over," Khalil Batran, a neighbour of the family who were killed, told Reuters.
A girl was the only survivor of the attack on the family home, Gaza medics said.
"There is no safety in Gaza ... Every day they fire at us from there and strike us with missiles. It's futile," Batran added.
Israel says its strikes are aimed at thwarting imminent attacks. It also says it allows aid and goods to flow into Gaza. Some 930 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the truce began, according to figures from Gaza health officials that do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Hamas rarely publishes information about deaths among its fighters.
More than 72,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the war started, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Israel's ambassador to the United States said Wednesday that the agreement between Jerusalem and Beirut shows that "Israel and Lebanon want Iran out of our region."
Speaking after the State Department announced that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to renew the cease-fire between them, Yechiel Leiter said that, "we will work to make sure that Iran and its terror proxies won't continue to wreak havoc on our lives in the name of terror and destruction."
