Israeli air strike kills 2 Islamic Jihad commanders in central Gaza

Two battalion commanders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement were killed in a recent Israeli air strike in the central Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Saturday.

The IDF said Israeli aircraft on Thursday carried out a "precise strike" on a command and control center in the city of Deir al-Balah used by Hamas and PIJ militants. The attack killed "a number of" militants, including Abdallah Khatib, commander of the PIJ's Southern Deir al-Balah Battalion, who commanded the battalion's operations in the October 7 attacks in southern Israel, according to the statement.

The IDF also reported that Hatem Abu Aljidian, commander of the PIJ's Eastern Deir al-Balah Battalion, who was involved in planning attacks against Israeli forces during the conflict, was also killed in the strike.

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, huge numbers of Israelis again poured into the streets to protest the government's failure to secure the return of remaining hostages in Gaza, and hospital and local authorities said Israeli air raids in the territory killed more than a dozen people overnight into Saturday.

The new protest came a week after one of the largest demonstrations of the war following the discovery of another six dead hostages in Gaza and after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against pressure for a ceasefire deal and declared that "no one will preach to me."

Hezbollah announced on Saturday it had attacked several settlements and sites in northern Israel with Katyusha rockets and artillery shells in response to Israel's attacks in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese armed group said in three separate statements that it had shelled the Israeli military base on Mount Neria with volleys of Katyusha rockets, attacked Israeli soldiers around the Manot settlement with rockets, and intercepted an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile in Lebanon's Bekaa region.

It also said it had attacked "the main intelligence headquarters at the Mishar base, as well as the sites of Misgav Am, Al-Alam, Samaqa, and Hadab Yaroun, with artillery shells and Katyusha rockets."

Lebanese military sources told Xinhua that the Lebanese army had monitored the launch of about 40 surface-to-surface missiles from southern Lebanon toward northern Israel on Saturday. Some of the missiles were intercepted by Israel, while many exploded in the airspace over southeastern Lebanon.

Three personnel of the Lebanese Civil Defense were killed and two others wounded on Saturday in an Israeli drone strike on southern Lebanon, according to the sources.

The sources also said that Israeli warplanes and drones carried out six raids on Saturday on four border towns and villages in southern Lebanon, and Israeli artillery shelled nine villages and towns in the eastern and central sectors with 35 shells, causing several fires and material damage.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Saturday urged countries and international institutions to prevent the recurrence of Israel's "war crimes" in the West Bank.

Kanaani made the remarks in a post on social media platform X in response to the Israeli military's withdrawal from the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Tulkarm, as well as their refugee camps, after days of military operations.

"The footage of insane destruction of all the urban and services infrastructure of the Gaza Strip and now those of some northern parts of the West Bank, in particular in Jenin and Tulkarm, indicates that the Israeli regime ... is pursuing the strategy of scorched earth," he said.

The international community is "morally, humanly and legally duty-bound" to prevent the recurrence of such "war crimes," he added.

Since last week, Israel has conducted a large-scale raid across the northern West Bank, stating that the operation aims to prevent future attacks against Israel.

(With input from agencies)