Israel’s government said a drone was launched toward the prime minister’s house Saturday, with no casualties as Iran’s supreme leader vowed that Hamas would continue its fight against Israel following thekilling of the mastermindof last year’s deadly Oct. 7 attack.
In Gaza, at least 21 people were killed in several Israeli strikes, including children, according to hospital officials and an AP reporter.
Sirens wailed Saturday morning in Israel, warning of incoming fire from Lebanon, with a drone launched toward Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu’shouse in Caesarea, the Israeli government said. Neither he nor his wife were home and there were no casualties, said his spokesperson in a statement.
In September, Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport when Netanyahu’s plane was landing. The missile was intercepted.
Saturday’s strikes into Israel come as itswar with Lebanon’s Hezbollah- a Hamas ally backed by Iran – has intensified in recent weeks. Hezbollah said Friday that it planned to launch a new phase of fighting by sending more guided missiles and exploding drones into Israel. The militant group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, waskilled in an Israeli airstrikein late September, and Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon earlier in October.
A standoff is also ensuingbetween Israel and Hamas, which it’s fighting in Gaza, with both signaling resistance to ending the war after thedeath of Hamas’ leader Yahya Sinwarthis week. On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Sinwar’s death was a painful loss but noted that Hamas carried on despite the killings of other Palestinian militant leaders before him.
“Hamas is alive and will stay alive,” Khamenei said.
SinceIsrael claimed Sinwar’s death Thursdayand a top Hamas political officialconfirmed the deathFriday, Hamas has reiterated its stance that the hostages they took from Israel a year ago will not be released until there is a cease-fire in Gaza and a withdrawal of Israeli troops. The staunch position pushed back against a statement by Netanyahu that his country’s military will keep fighting until the hostages are released, and willremain in Gazato prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming.
Sinwar was the chief architect of the 2023 Hamas raid on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped another 250. Israel’s retaliatoryoffensive in Gazahas killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians but say more than half the dead are women and children.
More strikes pounded Gaza on Saturday. The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement that Israeli strikes hit the upper floors of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and that forces opened fire at the hospital’s building and its courtyard, causing panic among patients and medical staff. At the Awda hospital in Jabaliya, strikes hit the building’s top floors, injuring several staff members, the hospital said in a statement.
in central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed, including two children, when a house was hit in the town of Zawayda, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where the casualties were taken. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies at the hospital. Another strike killed 11 people, all from the same family, in the Maghazi refugee camp, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where they were taken. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the hospital.
The warhas destroyed vast swaths of Gaza, displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, and left them struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.
Sinwar’s killing appeared to be a chance front-line encounter with Israeli troops on Wednesday, and it could shift the dynamics of the war in Gaza even as Israel presses itsoffensive against Hezbollahwith ground troops in southern Lebanon andairstrikes in other areasof the country.
Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas politically in Gaza, and killing Sinwar was a top military priority. But Netanyahu said in a Thursday night speech announcing the killing that “our war is not yet ended.”
Still, the governments of Israel’s allies and exhausted residents of Gaza expressed hope that Sinwar’s death wouldpave the wayfor an end to the war.
In Israel, families of hostages still held in Gazademanded the Israeli government use Sinwar’s killingas a way to restart negotiations to bring home their loved ones. There are about 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, at least 30 of whom Israel says are dead.
