“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

The statement confirmed he was killed with other group members “following the treacherous Zionist strike on the southern suburbs” of Beirut.

In the Lebanese capital Beirut, AFP journalists heard a passerby screaming, “Oh my God”, while women wept in the streets right after Hezbollah announced the news.

Gunfire could also be heard in Beirut, a gesture to mourn the fallen leader, a charismatic religious figure who is idolised by supporters.

Am AFP correspondent saw a woman wearing a black veil on the street who yelled: “Don’t believe them, they’re lying, Sayyed is well” — a reference to Nasrallah.

Israeli jets pounded Beirut’s south and its outskirts throughout the night into Saturday in the most intense attacks on the Hezbollah stronghold since the group and Israel last went to war in 2006.

Nasrallah had rarely been seen in public since 2006.

He was elected secretary general of Hezbollah in 1992, aged 32, after an Israeli helicopter gunship killed his predecessor Abbas al-Musawi.

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Israel’s Civil Defence Agency has ordered the closure of all schools in the northern part of the country following renewed rocket fire from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, as cross-border violence between the two sides continues to escalate.

The directive was issued by the military’s Home Front Command on Sunday, announcing that all educational institutions and activities in the northern region would remain closed until at least Monday at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT). The decision follows a series of rocket attacks from Lebanon, which have heightened tensions and triggered fears of a broader conflict.

The closure affects thousands of students, as authorities scramble to ensure the safety of residents in the region amid the growing volatility along Israel’s northern border. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have responded to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks with counter-strikes, but the situation remains tense with no immediate signs of de-escalation.

Local officials urged citizens to remain vigilant and adhere to the guidelines provided by the civil defence authorities, as both sides brace for further hostilities.

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Some 458 women were among those killed, the ministry said. It added that 8,714 people have also been wounded, after an earlier statement said at least 324 people were killed in the past 24 hours alone.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the bombardment is “just the beginning” as Israel seeks to retaliate against Hamas after their fighters killed more than 1,300 people a week ago.

More than 1,300 buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed so far, the United Nations said Saturday.

The UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said “5,540 housing units” in those buildings were destroyed and nearly 3,750 more homes were so badly damaged they were uninhabitable.

“According to the Gaza Ministry of Public Works, 1,324 residential and non-residential buildings, comprising 5,540 housing units, have been destroyed,” OCHA said.

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / A Palestinian shouts following an Israeli strike, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 14, 2023, as fighting between Israel and the Hamas movement continues for the eighth consecutive day. (Photo by YASSER QUDIH / AFP)

“Another 3,743 housing units have been damaged beyond repair and rendered uninhabitable.”

A further 55,000 housing units have been partially damaged, said OCHA.

The UN has been monitoring the number of people displaced from their homes within the Gaza Strip, with more than 423,000 recorded by the end of Thursday.

Israel then warned that some 1.1 million people in the north of the enclave quickly needed to evacuate to the south, ahead of an expected ground offensive.

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Palestinians carry the body of Mahmud Shadeh, 27-years-old, who was injured the day before during clashes with Israeli soldier in his home town of Jericho, and brought to the hospital in the West Bank city in Ramallah where he died on October 14, 2023, as fighting between Israel and the Hamas movement continues for the eighth consecutive day in the Gaza Strip enclave. – (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)

As of 1800 GMT Friday, “it is estimated that tens of thousands have fled”, OCHA said.

“Currently, the precise scope of internally displaced persons in the Gaza Strip is unknown,” it said.

Citing the Palestinian health ministry, it said “vehicles of those evacuating the north were hit, killing more than 40 people and injuring 150 others.

“These incidents prompted many people to abandon their evacuation efforts and return home.

“No safe corridors were initially provided for people to safely comply with the orders to move southwards.  Hundreds of people, including families, had to flee on foot.”

OCHA said most people in the Gaza Strip were now without access to clean drinking water.

“As a last resort, people are consuming brackish water from agricultural wells, triggering serious concerns about the spread of waterborne diseases.”

OCHA said that since the start of hostilities, six water wells, three water pumping stations, one water reservoir, and one desalination plant serving over 1,100,000 people had been damaged by air strikes.

The full electricity blackout has brought essential health, water and sanitation services “to the brink of collapse”, and exacerbated food insecurity, it said.

The post Death Toll in Gaza Climbs to 2,215, With More than 1,300 Buildings Left in Ruin first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in Jerusalem to discuss “strengthening cooperation” between their countries, Netanyahu’s office said.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi tasked Kamel and his delegation, who were also to visit the occupied Palestinian Territories, with hammering out a permanent ceasefire deal, senior Egyptian security officials told AFP.

On the same day, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi made the first official visit by an Israeli top diplomat to neighbouring Egypt in 13 years, for talks with his counterpart Sameh Shoukry.

Ashkenazi tweeted on his arrival that they would “discuss establishing a permanent ceasefire with Hamas, a mechanism for providing humanitarian aid and the reconstruction of Gaza with a pivotal role played by the international community”.

The Egyptian foreign ministry tweeted that the ministers’ talks were “part of Egypt’s relentless and continued efforts to revive the peace track and to build on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was also expected in Cairo for talks, senior Egyptian security officials said, without providing further details.

Egypt played a pivotal role in negotiating the May 21 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that brought an end to 11 days of deadly fighting.

Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, health officials said.

Rockets and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, medics said.

Prisoners

Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s demand “for the prompt return” of Israelis being held in the Gaza Strip, according to the statement.

Ashkenazi also said Israel was “fully committed” to repatriating Israeli prisoners held by Hamas.

Since Israel’s 2014 invasion of the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group has held the bodies of Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, although Hamas has never confirmed their deaths.

Hamas is also believed to be holding two Israeli citizens who entered Gaza alone and whose families say they have mental health issues.

Israel is meanwhile holding more than 5,000 Palestinians in its jails.

Sisi has pledged $500 million to help reconstruction efforts in the densely populated Gaza enclave, which was pummelled by Israeli air strikes.

Hamas has pledged not to touch “a single cent” of international aid to rebuild Gaza.

Israel, which has enforced a land and maritime blockade on the enclave since 2007, accuses the group of diverting international aid to military ends.

The statement from Netanyahu’s office said he and Kamel also discussed “mechanisms and processes to prevent the strengthening of Hamas and its use of the resources that will be directed to the civilian population in the future”.

Root causes

The latest violent flare-up was sparked by increased tensions in Jerusalem, including over Israeli security forces cracking down on Palestinians inside the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, which is also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.

A bitter divide between Hamas and Fatah has long plagued Palestinian politics, but analysts say the latest escalation has served to unite the geographically fragmented Palestinian community in a way not seen in years.

Sisi also tasked Kamel with working to help iron out political divisions between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Egyptian officials said.

The UN Human Rights Council decided Thursday to create an open-ended international investigation into violations surrounding the latest Gaza violence.

It said it would also look at the “underlying root causes of recurrent tensions and instability, including systematic discrimination” in the occupied Palestinian Territories and inside Israel.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet voiced particular concern about the “high level of civilian fatalities and injuries” from the bombing of Gaza and warned the Israeli strikes on the enclave “may constitute war crimes”.

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“Egypt will provide $500 million… for the reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip as a result of recent events, with expert Egyptian construction companies implementing the rebuilding,” the presidency said in a statement.

Cairo has sought to mediate a ceasefire between Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas and Israel since the deadly violence erupted on May 10.

Since then, Israeli air strikes have killed more than 200 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Twelve people have been killed on the Israeli side, according to authorities in the Jewish state.

Sisi is holding talks in Paris with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and Jordan’s King Abdullah II aimed at seeking a rapid truce to the lethal conflict.

Egypt also sent 65 tonnes of medical aid to neighbouring Gaza, its healthy ministry said.

With hospitals in Gaza overwhelmed by patients, the critical surgical supplies include specialist burns treatment as well as “ventilators, oxygen tanks (and) syringes,” Health Minister Hala Zayed said late Monday.

Sisi on Sunday ordered the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt — the enclave’s only border point not controlled by Israel — to open to allow wounded Gazans to be treated in Egyptian hospitals and to deliver aid.

Sources at Rafah on Tuesday said that 26 trucks of food had been sent to Gaza, with 50 ambulances ready to transport the wounded.

Egypt said it would make space in 11 hospitals nationwide at a capacity of over 1,800 beds.

Israel launched its aerial bombing campaign on Gaza after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets in response to unrest in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

The Israeli strikes have killed 213 people, including 61 children, and wounded more than 1,400 in Gaza, according to the health ministry.

The UN says nearly 40,000 Gazans have been displaced and 2,500 have lost their homes.

Strikes have knocked out the only Covid-19 testing laboratory in the blockaded enclave, the health ministry has said.

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The nominee is expected to take up his appointment for a 5 years and 8 months term, starting from 1 June 2018.

The WHO Regional Committee comprises the following Members: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

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