Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar thanked Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for his support in the ongoing war with Israel in a letter released Friday by Hezbollah’s media office.
In the letter, dated Monday, Sinwar thanks Nasrallah for the “blessed acts” of Iran-backed groups in their support for Hamas since Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. Sinwar called the war “one of the most honorable battles for the Palestinian people.”
On Oct. 8, Hezbollah started attacking Israeli military posts along the border, triggering an ongoing exchange of fire that has left hundreds dead.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since the Israel-Hamas war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count.
The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times, and the United Nations reported the Palestinian economy is in a free fall. The report from the U.N. Trade and Development also warned of “rapid and alarming economic decline” in the West Bank, citing expanded Israeli settlements, land confiscations, demolition of Palestinian buildings and violence by settlers as dampening economic prospects.
Here’s the latest:
CAIRO — Israeli airstrikes continued to hit Gaza overnight and early Friday, killing at least 12 people in their homes, the Palestinian territory’s Civil Defense said.
The strikes hit homes in Deir al Balah’s Nuseirat Camp as well as in Rafah, it said. In Nuseirat, three people died, including a woman and a child, and eleven others were injured by the strikes. In Rafah, strikes killed five people, including two children, Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said.
Israeli strikes resumed Friday afternoon, killing another person in Nuseirat and three people in Gaza City.
Bassal said a day earlier that 16 people were killed by airstrikes on Gaza City on Thursday.
The strikes come nearly a day after health workers wrapped up the first round of the polio vaccination campaign during which hundreds of thousands of children were vaccinated. The second dose of the vaccine is expected to be provided in the coming weeks, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Gaza’s health ministry said Thursday that 41,119 Palestinians were killed, and 95,125 others were injured since the Israel-Hamas war broke out last October.
BEIRUT — The leader of the Palestinian Hamas group thanked Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief for his support in the ongoing war with Israel in a letter released Friday by Hezbollah’s media office.
Yahya Sinwar’s letter came in response to a message sent earlier by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in which he paid his condolence for the July killing of top Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Iran.
In the letter, dated Monday, Sinwar thanks Nasrallah for the “blessed acts” of Iran-backed groups in their support for Hamas since the Israel-Hamas war started Oct. 7, calling the war “one of the most honorable battles for the Palestinian people.”
A day after the militants’ bloody incursion into Israel that started the war, Hezbollah started attacking Israeli military posts along the border, triggering an ongoing exchange of fire. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes since Oct. 8, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and other armed groups, but also more than 100 civilians. In northern Israel, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed by strikes from Lebanon.
