A guided-missile attack by Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon killed a civilian in northern Israel on Thursday, Israel’s Channel 13 TV said.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it pronounced the death of a 60-year-old man at Fassuta, about 3 kilometers (1.5 miles) from Matat, a village abutting the Lebanese border which the Israeli military had reported coming under a missile attack.
The cross-border exchanges of fire began after Hamas’s assault on Israel on October 7, which killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw about 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
In response, Israel vowed to eliminate the militant group and unleashed an air and ground campaign that authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say has killed more than 17,177 people, also mostly civilians.
The Israeli army said Hamas operatives were “emerging from underground” and fighting in face-to-face combat, adding that the Israeli forces broke through Jabaliya, Shuja’iyya and the Khan Younis area.
Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a statement: “In the Jabalya, Shuja’iyya, and Khan Younis areas, we have broken through their defensive lines.”
He added: “The terrorists are now emerging from the underground tunnels and engaging our forces in close combat, our forces are emerging with the upper hand. Our forces will continue to further our achievements in Jabalya, Shuja’iyya, and also in the Khan Younis area – the heart of Hamas’ terror.”
Hagari stated that Israeli forces were encircling the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza where commando forces were “conducting raids and battling Hamas terrorists.” Simultaneously, Israeli military was fighting in the Jabalya and Shuja’iyya areas.
Additionally, the Israeli military said that during operations in Khan Younis, troops “killed Hamas terrorists and struck dozens of terror targets,” according to a statement which added: “Troops engaged with a terrorist cell that exited from a tunnel shaft, killed two terrorists in combat and struck the shaft.”
Moreover, the Israeli army said its troops conducted a targeted raid on a military compound belonging to Hamas’ Central Jabalya Battalion. “A number of terrorists were killed as part of the activity. Furthermore, the forces located a network of underground tunnels that lead out of the compound, as well as a training area and weapons storage facility in the area of the compound.”
The Israeli military added that over the past 24 hours Israeli naval forces struck Hamas military compounds and infrastructure using precise ammunition and firing shells.
Meanwhile, the military wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades said on Wednesday its fighters were confronting Israeli forces in the Shuja’iyya area. It added in a statement that Brigades fighters were engaged in violent clashes with Israeli forces on all fronts of the “incursion” into Gaza.
Al-Qassam Brigades said it destroyed 23 military vehicles in the front of fighting in Khan Younis and Beit Lahia. The Brigades soldiers additionally, killed and wounded six Israeli soldiers and detonated explosives planted in a house in which Israeli forces were barricaded.
On Tuesday, Palestinian authorities said at least 40 Palestinian civilians were killed and dozens were injured as a result of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the city of Khan Younis, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Additionally, the Palestinian report stated that Israeli artillery and drones bombed the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalia Camp.
“108 slain civilians and dozens of casualties were taken to the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which ex-periences a power outage as more than 7,000 displaced people are still inside it. Additionally, medical teams were unable to perform any surgical operations in the hospital.”
Since the outbreak of the war on October 7, Palestinians have struggled to survive amid the bar-rage of strikes on the enclave that racked up a body count of Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hamas that surpassed 16,000 Palestinians, 6,500 of them children and more than 4,500 women.