Israel attacked a Hamas command center overnight. The Islamists speak of at least 18 dead. All developments in the news blog.
8:32 a.m: At least 18 people were killed and dozens more wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip on Sunday night. This is reported by the Palestinian news agency Wafa. According to eyewitnesses, the number of victims could rise because the mosque was used to accommodate displaced people.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it “carried out a precise strike against Hamas terrorists operating from a command and control center housed in a building previously known as the ‘Shuhada al-Aqsa’ mosque in the area of Deir al-Balah”.
In the north of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army says it has also surrounded the Jabaliya area. An army spokesman pointed to intelligence indicating the “presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure in the Jabaliya area, as well as efforts by Hamas to restore its operational capabilities in the area.”
4:51 a.m.: Israel successfully intercepted three drones off the coast of Israel on Sunday morning, the military (IDF) said. Two of the drones were intercepted by a Navy missile ship in the Mediterranean, according to the IDF, although it did not mention where the drones were launched from. The other was intercepted by the Luftwaffe from the east off the coast of central Israel.
2:20 a.m.: The Israeli army says it has once again attacked command centers of the Islamist Hamas from the air in the embattled Gaza Strip. One was in the center of the sealed-off coastal strip in a building that used to be a school, it was said. Another command center was located in the same area in a building that previously served as a mosque. Arab reports said there were 15 dead and dozens injured in the area. Neither the Arab reports nor the army’s information could be independently verified.
Before the “precise” attacks, numerous measures were taken to reduce the danger to civilians, the army said. The attacked buildings were used to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli troops and the State of Israel. This is another example of the systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure by Hamas, which violates international law, it said.
11.30 p.m.: According to the Israeli military, the Lebanese Hezbollah has again fired heavily at Israel. The Shiite organization fired around 130 missiles towards Israel, the Israeli military said. In the past few days, the army had also registered even more bullets from the neighboring country. There were initially no reports of victims or damage.
8:52 p.m.: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded in a radio interview to French President Emmanuel Macron’s demand that Israel no longer provide weapons for its fight in Gaza. “Shame on you!” said Netanyahu in the direction of Macron and other politicians who share his opinion. “What a shame. Israel will win with or without your support.”
4:46 p.m.: Contact with Hezbollah’s possible new leader, Hashem Safieddin, has been lost since Israeli air strikes on Beirut on Friday. The terrorist organization itself reports this. Sadieddin was most recently seen as the successor to Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike.
3:31 p.m.: French President Emmanuel Macron is in favor of stopping the supply of weapons to Israel that are used in the Gaza Strip. Today, the priority is to return to a “political solution” and to end arms deliveries “for the fighting in the Gaza Strip,” Macron explains on France Inter radio station. “France doesn’t deliver,” he further emphasizes.
