SENIOR HEZBOLLAH COMMANDER AND LEADER KILLED IN ISRAEL STRIKES

 A senior leader with the Islamist Hezbollah movement has reportedly been killed in an apparent Israeli drone attack in southern Lebanon. 

1. Reports suggest a car was targeted in the Khirbet Selm area, which veered off the road before catching fire
2. The International Rescue Committee says it has pulled its medics from the only functioning hospital in central Gaza
3. The move follows the cancellation of a World Health Organization-backed mission to bring medical supplies into northern Gaza
4. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said 73 Palestinians were killed and 99 injured by Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours
5. Elsewhere, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is holding talks with leaders of Gulf Arab states the UAE and Saudi Arabia before travelling to Israel
6. At least 1,200 people were killed when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October and about 240 others were taken hostage
7. The Gaza health ministry - run by Hamas - says at least 23,000 people have been killed in the territory since Israel started its retaliatory campaign.

8. Hezbollah confirms death of senior commander Wissam Tawil

   Hezbollah have now confirmed the killing of Wissam Tawil - a senior commander in the group's elite Radwan force.

   Hezbollah does not detail the cause of Tawil's death, but earlier Reuters news agency cited three security sources as saying he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a car in southern Lebanon.

   

   HezbollahCopyright: Hezbollah

   Wissam Tawil was the deputy head of a unit within Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, Reuters reports

9. Lebanese state media reports Israeli strike on car in southern town

   More from Lebanon now.

   AFP cites a security source as saying that a top commander with a leading role in managing Hezbollah's operations has been killed in an "Israeli raid targeting his car in the south".

   We're still working on getting a fuller picture of the events, but earlier, Lebanon's state media agency reported injuries following an Israeli drone strike on a Skoda Rapid car at 10:15 local time.

   It said the vehicle was on the road in the vicinity of the Al-Dabsha area in the town of Khirbet Selm, in the Bint Jbeil district.

   The strike caused the car to veer off the road and catch fire, it added.

   Emergency medical and firefighting teams from the Civil Defense, Islamic Scouts, Red Cross, and other responders promptly arrived at the scene and worked on extinguishing the flames.

10. Hamas-run Gaza government calls for more wounded to be allowed through Rafah crossing

    

    ReutersCopyright: Reuters

    Displaced Palestinians seek shelter near the border with Egypt in RafahImage caption: Displaced Palestinians seek shelter near the border with Egypt in Rafah

    The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza has called on Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing to allow the transfer of 6,000 wounded people from the territory for treatment abroad "immediately and urgently".

    It makes the plea in light of the "catastrophic reality that the health sector and hospitals in the Gaza Strip are suffering from".

    In a statement, it says Israeli bombardment has put 30 facilities "completely out of service", adding that the "number of infections has now exceeded 58,000".

    It says that currently only 10 to 20 wounded are allowed to be transferred through the crossing daily and urges Egypt to improve its mechanism so that "hundreds and thousands" can be approved for transfer "instead of approving only a few dozen".

    The media office issues an appeal "to all countries of the world to intervene" and calls on the international community and the US to put pressure on Israel to stop the war.

    "We call on everyone to bear their moral and humanitarian responsibility in the face of the suffering of civilians, children and women in the Gaza Strip, as they are slaughtered from vein to vein while the world watches this tragedy."

11. THIS AND MANY MORE UPDATES AT: Israel Gaza: Medics pulled from al-Aqsa Hospital as Israeli strikes continue - BBC News