Senior Hezbollah leader killed; WHO cancels mission; Blinken flies in

An Israeli strike on south Lebanon on Monday killed a senior commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, three security sources told Reuters.

"This is a very painful strike," one of the security sources said. Hezbollah has lost more than 130 fighters in Israeli shelling on southern Lebanon since cross-border bombardment began.

Israel also hit targets in south Gaza, the army said on Monday ahead of a visit by the top U.S. diplomat who is seeking to avert a wider conflict.

Gaza's health ministry said 73 dead and 99 wounded had arrived at Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah city over the previous 24 hours.

An Israeli air strike on a car near Rafah in southern Gaza on Sunday killed two Palestinian journalists, according to health officials in Gaza and the journalists' union there.

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Three months into its battle with Gaza-based Hamas fighters, Israel's army says its focus has moved from the northern Gaza Strip to "dismantling" militants in the center and south of the territory.

In the southern city of Khan Yunis, troops and warplanes struck 30 militant targets which a military statement described as "significant." These included underground targets and weapons storage facilities, it said.

A drone also killed 10 militants "preparing to launch rockets toward Israeli territory," the statement added. Also overnight, the military said it had hit "numerous Hezbollah targets" in Lebanon.

Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally, has engaged in regular cross-border fire during the war that began on October 7 with Hamas's unprecedented attack against Israel.

But a strike last week in a Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah has been a major factor contributing to rising fears of spreading conflict. A U.S. Defense Department official has told AFP that Israel carried out the strike that killed Hamas's deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri.

The Hamas attack which triggered the war resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Hamas also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain captive, Israel says. At least 24 are believed to have been killed.

Israel has responded with relentless bombardment and a ground incursion, killing at least 22,835 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

WHO forced to cancel medical supply mission 

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had been compelled to cancel a mission to bring medical supplies to northern Gaza on Sunday after failing to receive security guarantees.

It was the fourth time the WHO had had to call off a planned mission to bring urgently needed medical supplies to Al-Awda Hospital and the central drug store in northern Gaza since December 26, it said.

"It has now been 12 days since we were last able to reach northern Gaza," the WHO office in the occupied Palestinian territories said.

"Heavy bombardment, movement restrictions, and interrupted communications are making it nearly impossible to deliver medical supplies regularly and safely across Gaza, particularly in the north."

The delivery planned on Sunday, WHO said, had been designed to sustain the operations of five hospitals in the northern part of the enclave.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said he did not have information on WHO's assertion, referring questions to the Israel Defense Forces.

In separate comments, the International Rescue Committee aid group said its emergency medical team and the Medical Aid for Palestinians charity had been forced to withdraw and cease its activities at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza's Middle Area due to increasing Israel military activity in the area.

U.S. diplomat Blinken heads to Middle East

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks in Saudi Arabia and the UAE on Monday before heading on to Israel after warning that the Gaza war could spread across the region without concerted peace efforts.

Blinken started a five-day Middle East diplomatic effort in Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, seeking to avert a wider war in the region. He is also due to visit the West Bank and Egypt this week.

"This is a moment of profound tension for the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and suffering," Blinken told a press conference in Doha before heading to Abu Dhabi.

Blinken's visit comes as Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri lamented that Arab and Islamic countries had yet to back South Africa's call for genocide proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

"‎We hope that there will be a remedy, otherwise this official silence will constitute a mandate for the occupation to eradicate what remains of Gaza," he said.

Jordan's King Abdullah urged Blinken to use Washington's influence over Israel to press it for an immediate ceasefire and warned of the "catastrophic repercussions" of Israel's continued military campaign.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting.

"The war must not be stopped until we achieve all the goals: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," he said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. "I say this to both our enemies and our friends."

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the intensity of the offensive in Gaza signaled his country's determination to destroy Hamas and deter other potential adversaries including Hezbollah.

"My basic view: We are fighting an axis, not a single enemy," Gallant told the Wall Street Journal. "Iran is building up military power around Israel in order to use it."

But Israel's national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has questioned the country's war strategy, saying the war cabinet – Netanyahu, Gallant and Benny Gantz – "does not have the mandate" to unilaterally take Israel towards a "war of attrition."

Despite global concern over the death and destruction in Gaza and widespread calls for a ceasefire, Israeli public opinion remains firmly behind the operation, although support for Netanyahu has fallen sharply.

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