Indian Thought Latest News & Views
Israeli attacks: Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Friday that 37 people were killed and 151 injured in Israeli (Israel ) attacks in the last 24 hours. A source close to Hezbollah said that Israel carried out 11 consecutive attacks on the group’s South Beirut stronghold late Thursday night, which was one of the most violent attacks since Israel intensified its bombing campaign last week.
Deadliest since 2000
At the same time, the Palestinian Health Ministry said late Thursday that at least 18 people were killed in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. After an air strike, the Israeli army claimed that a local Hamas leader had been killed. A Palestinian security service source said the airstrike was the deadliest in the West Bank since 2000. “18 martyred after the bombing of the occupied Tulkarm camp,” the Palestinian health ministry said on its Telegram account.
The Israeli military confirmed the attack on the northern West Bank town and described it as a joint operation carried out by the Shin Bet internal security service and the air force.
The Israeli military later said the strike killed Zahi Yasser Abd al-Razek Oufi, a Hamas leader in Tulkarm. The army accused Oufi of participating in a number of attacks in the West Bank and said he was in the process of planning another attack. “Oufi was killed along with several other important terrorists who were part of the terrorist network in Tulkarm,” the statement said. Hamas condemned the airstrike and called it a “brutal attack” that would prove to be a “dangerous” way to escalate tensions. Camp official Faisal Salama told AFP that the attack was carried out by an F-16 fighter jet. Alaa Sarouzi, a social worker in the area, said the Israeli plane “hit a cafeteria in a four-story building.”
Violence escalates in West Bank
“There are many victims in the hospital,” the resident said, adding that the death toll was likely to rise. Hamas’ rival Palestinian movement Fatah, based in the occupied West Bank, called for a demonstration on Friday in honour of Tulkarm’s “heroic martyrs”. Tulkarm was one of the towns and Palestinian refugee camps targeted during a large-scale Israeli military operation against militants based in the West Bank in late August. Violence has escalated in the West Bank alongside the Gaza war that began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
