Israel-Hamas war: Israeli strike kills top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, says security official

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to meet Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler on Monday before heading to Israel as part of efforts to stop the Gaza war spiralling into a regional conflict.

Israel has the duty to protect Palestinians in the West Bank, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in Ramallah on Monday (January 8). Her comments came after the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces had killed six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Israeli officials said an Israeli police officer was killed in the violence.

Smoke rose from land behind a tent camp housing displaced Palestinians in the southern Gazan city of Rafah on Monday (January 8). The Gaza war has displaced most of the enclave's 2.3 million population, left many homes and civilian infrastructure in ruins, and caused acute shortages of food, water, and medicines.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken leavs UAE's Abu Dhabi for Al Ula city in western Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, before heading to Israel as part of efforts to stop the Gaza war spiralling into a regional conflict.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday at least 23,084 people have been killed in the besieged Palestinian territory since war with Israel began on October 7.

The ministry said in a statement that it had recorded 249 deaths in the past 24 hours, while a total of 58,926 people had been wounded in the Gaza Strip during the more than three months of fighting.

Israel killed a top commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in a strike on south Lebanon, a security source told AFP Monday, adding to fears the conflict in Gaza could spill over.

The commander "had a leading role in managing Hezbollah's operations in the south," the security official said requesting anonymity for security concerns, adding he "was killed in an Israeli raid targeting his car in the south".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Monday as part of a diplomatic push to stop the war in Gaza spreading further. Blinken is scheduled later on Monday to hold talks in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the oasis town of Al Ula before heading on to Israel.
 

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel is not afraid of going to war with the Lebanon-based Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group and that the destruction in Gaza can be "copy-pasted" to Beirut. 

Since October 8, Hezbollah has engaged in near daily clashes with the Israeli forces including targeting citizens in the area with rockets and missiles prompting the evacuation of tens of thousands of Israelis. 

While Israel's priority, according to Gallant is not to engage with Hezbollah, he said "80,000 people need to be able to go back to their homes safely," and if everything else fails "we are willing to sacrifice."

"They see what is happening in Gaza," the Israeli defence minister told WSJ. He added, "They know we can copy-paste to Beirut."

73 dead and 99 wounded arrived at Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, reported the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. 

Dozens of people took to streets and protested outside the Knesset in Jerusalem and called the government to step down and hold fresh elections. The activists sat on the floor, blocked the entrance to the building and chanted “Elections now.”

“Any hopes that the government would raise to the occasion of this time of emergency have been shattered by their failed actions, expressed by their dysfunction, the abandonment of the hostages, the fatal damage to Israel’s international reputation, their continued incitement and divisiveness and the diversion of budgets in favor of personal interests at the expense of the public as a whole,” said the organisers, in a statement.

” We came to the Knesset to demand elections now, the immediate replacement of the government, and the expulsion of the extremists,” they added. 

Australia banned the Nazi salute as well as display or sale of symbols related with the terror group as the government responded to the increase in antisemitic incidents after the Israel-Hamas war which was triggered by October 7 attack by the Palestinian terror group.

As per the law, display the Nazi swastika or the double-sig rune related to the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary group and publicly performance of the Nazi salute have been made a offense punishable by up to 12 months in prison. The trade and sale of such symbols has also been prohibited.

In a statement, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said, “This is the first legislation of its kind and will ensure no one in Australia will be allowed to glorify or profit from acts and symbols that celebrate the Nazis and their evil ideology.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to hold talks in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates before heading to Israel as part of his Mideast tour in which he aims to discuss postwar Gaza. He is likely to hold talks with Israeli leaders on Tuesday (Jan 9)/

Blinken earlier on Sunday (Jan 7) visited Jordan and Qatar as part of his diplomatic efforts which seek to avoid a wider war in the Middle East.

“This is a moment of profound tension for the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasise, causing even more insecurity and suffering,” said Blinken, in Doha before heading to Abu Dhabi.

Bolivia joined Turkey and Malaysia who have announced their support for South Africa's application to the International Court of Justice which accuses Israel of genocide over the war with Hamas in Gaza.

Last week on Friday, South Africa asked the ICJ for an urgent decision to declare that Israel's onslaught on Hamas violated its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention. 

Bolivia's foreign ministry, on Sunday (Jan 7) in a statement said that it was joining the case as a signatory to the Genocide Convention "committed to peace and justice". It added, "South Africa took a historic step in the defence of the Palestinian people." 

A lawmaker from the Arab-majority Hadas-Ta’al party and Member of the Israeli Parliament or Knesset Ofer Cassif signed a petition expressing his support for the upcoming hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to consider South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, reported the Times of Israel. 

The MK is among 200 other Israelis who have signed the petition in support of South Africa's case against Israel. 

"My constitutional duty is to Israeli society and all its residents, not to a government whose members and its coalition are calling for ethnic cleansing and even actual genocide. They are the ones who harm the country and the people, they are the ones who led to South Africa’s appeal to The Hague, not me and my friends," said Cassif in a post on X. 

In an application filed last week, South Africa has alleged that Israel's actions during its war against Hamas in Gaza are "genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent… to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group." 

An Israeli government spokesman has since said that the nation will appear before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague to oppose South Africa's genocide allegations. 

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the location of hundreds of patients and health workers from Gaza's Al-Aqsa Hospital "are not currently known." 

In a post on X, Tedros said that the UN health agency has received "troubling reports of increasing hostilities and ongoing evacuation orders near the vital Al-Aqsa Hospital...according to the facility’s director forced over 600 patients and most health workers to leave. Their locations are not currently known."

He also said that WHO and UN humanitarian agency OCHA visited Al-Aqsa and had seen a large number of injured people being brought in for urgent treatment. 

"No hospitals are fully functioning in Northern Gaza, where another WHO mission was cancelled today due to dangers and lack of necessary permissions. Elsewhere in Gaza, a mere handful of health facilities operate," said the WHO chief. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responding to the deaths of two journalists who were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza said that the duo working for Al Jazeera, were in a vehicle with a terror operative who was operating a drone, reported Times of Israel. 

IDF Spokesperson’s Unit told the Israeli media outlet that the military aircraft "identified and struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft in a way that put IDF forces at risk."

It also said that they are "aware of the claim that during the strike two other suspects who were with the terrorist in the same vehicle were hit." 

According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza Mustafa Thuria, a video stringer for AFP news agency, and Hamza Wael Dahdouh, a journalist with Al Jazeera television network, were killed while they were travelling in a car, on Sunday (Jan 7). 

Hamza's father Wael al-Dahdouh is Al Jazeera's bureau chief in the Gaza Strip and was also recently wounded in a strike.