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Israeli airstrikes kill 43 across Gaza Strip - medics; IDF commandos raided missile plant in Syria in September

Israeli airstrikes kill 43 across Gaza Strip - medics; IDF commandos raided missile plant in Syria in September
Reuters
By Reuters
2 Jan 2025
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Israeli airstrikes killed at least 43 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said. Meanwhile, Israel's military said on Thursday its special forces had raided an underground missile production site in Syria in September that it said was primed to produce hundreds of precision missiles for use against Israel by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Israeli airstrikes kill at least 43 across Gaza, say medics 


Israeli airstrikes killed at least 43 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including 11 people in a tent encampment sheltering displaced families, medics said.

They said the 11 included women and children in the Al-Mawasi district, which was designated as a humanitarian zone for civilians earlier in the war between Israel and Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group, now in its 15th month.

The director-general of Gaza's police department, Mahmoud Salah, and his aide, Hussam Shahwan, were killed in the strike, according to the Hamas-run Gaza interior ministry.

"By committing the crime of assassinating the director general of police in the Gaza Strip, the occupation is insisting on spreading chaos in the (enclave) and deepening the human suffering of citizens," it added in a statement.

The Israeli military said it had conducted an intelligence-based strike in Al-Mawasi, just west of the city of Khan Younis, and eliminated Shahwan, calling him the head of Hamas security forces in southern Gaza. It made no mention of Salah's death.

Other Israeli airstrikes killed at least 26 Palestinians, including six in the interior ministry headquarters in Khan Younis and others in north Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp, the Shati (Beach) camp and central Gaza's Maghazi camp.

Israel's military said it had targeted Hamas militants who intelligence indicated were operating in a command and control centre "embedded inside the Khan Younis municipality building in the Humanitarian Area".

"As the year begins, we got reports of yet another attack on Al-Mawasi with dozens of people killed, another reminder that there is no humanitarian zone let alone a safe zone (in Gaza)," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, said in a post on X.

"Everyday without a ceasefire will bring more tragedy."

Asked about Thursday's reported death toll, a spokesperson for the Israeli military said it followed international law in waging the war in Gaza and that it took "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm".

Later on Thursday, separate Israeli airstrikes killed at least four people on Jala Street in downtown Gaza City and two in its Zeitoun district, medics said.

The Israeli military has accused Gaza militants of using built-up residential areas for cover. Hamas denies this.

Hamas' smaller ally Islamic Jihad said it fired rockets into the southern Israeli kibbutz of Holit near Gaza on Thursday. The Israeli military said it intercepted one projectile in the area that had crossed from southern Gaza.

Israel has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians in the war, according to Gaza's health ministry. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the tiny, heavily built-up coastal territory is in ruins.

The war was triggered by Hamas' October 7, 2023 cross-border attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israeli military says commandos raided missile plant in Syria in September


Israel's military said on Thursday its special forces had raided an underground missile production site in Syria in September that it said was primed to produce hundreds of precision missiles for use against Israel by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

The complex near Masyaf, close to the Mediterranean coast, was "the flagship of Iranian manufacturing efforts in our region", Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told a briefing with reporters.

"This facility was designed to manufacture hundreds of strategic missiles per year from start to finish, for Hezbollah to use in their aerial attacks on Israel."

He said the plant, dug into a mountainside, had been under observation by Israel since construction began in 2017 and was on the point of being able to manufacture precision-guided missiles, some with a range of up to 300km (190 miles).

"This ability was becoming active, so we're talking about an immediate threat," he said.

Details of the September 8 raid have been reported in Israeli media but Shoshani said this was the first confirmation by the military, which rarely comments on special forces operations.

At the time, Syrian state media said at least 16 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the west of the country.

Shoshani said the nighttime raid was "one of the more complex operations the IDF has done in recent years". Accompanied by airstrikes, it involved dozens of aircraft and around 100 helicopter-borne troops, he said.

"At the end of the raid, the troops dismantled the facility, including the machines and the manufacturing equipment, themselves," he said.

The military released footage showing Israeli troops boarding and dismounting from helicopters and moving through what appears to be a concrete-lined tunnel and industrial site, where they examine documents.

Other footage showed senior commanders at a control centre, apparently as the operation proceeded.

Israeli officials have accused the former Syrian government of president Bahar al-Assad of helping the Lebanese-based Hezbollah movement receive arms from Iran and say they are determined to stop the flow of weapons into Lebanon.

As Assad's government crumbled towards the end of last year, Israel launched a series of strikes against Syrian military infrastructure and weapons manufacturing sites to prevent them falling into the hands of enemies.

Israeli PM Netanyahu leaves hospital after prostate surgery


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was released from hospital on Thursday after his prostate surgery ended "successfully", his office reported on X.

"I have just left Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital," he said on X. The hospital is in Jerusalem.

His office said Netanyahu, 75, was in a good condition and fully conscious after the conclusion of his prostate surgery.

Gaza's Islamic Jihad says Israeli hostage tried to take own life


An Israeli hostage held by Gaza's Islamic Jihad militant group has tried to take his own life, the spokesperson for the movement's armed wing said in a video posted on Telegram on Thursday.

One of the group's medical teams intervened and prevented him from dying, the Al Quds Brigades spokesperson added, without going into any more detail on the hostage's identity or current condition.

Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Militants led by Gaza's ruling Hamas movement killed 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage in an attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad also took part in the assault.

The military campaign that Israel launched in response has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, according to health officials in the coastal enclave.

Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza said the hostage had tried to take his own life three days ago due to his psychological state, without going into more details.

Abu Hamza accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of setting new conditions that had led to "the failure and delay" of negotiations for the hostage's release.

The man had been scheduled to be released with other hostages under the conditions of the first stage of an exchange deal with Israel, Abu Hamza said. He did not specify when the man had been scheduled to be released or under which deal.

Arab mediators' efforts, backed by the United States, have so far failed to conclude a ceasefire in Gaza, under a possible deal that would also see the release of Israeli hostages in return for the freedom of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

Islamic Jihad's armed wing had issued a decision to tighten the security and safety measures for the hostages, Abu Hamza added.

In July, Islamic Jihad's armed wing said some Israeli hostages had tried to kill themselves after it started treating them in what it said was the same way that Israel treated Palestinian prisoners.

"We will keep treating Israeli hostages the same way Israel treats our prisoners," Abu Hamza said at that time. Israel has dismissed accusations that it mistreats Palestinian prisoners. DM

Read more: Middle East crisis news hub

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