Israeli Airstrike Kills Several Hezbollah Members in South Lebanon

Smoke billows from a site targeted by Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Boustane near the border with Israel on July 18, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.  (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
Smoke billows from a site targeted by Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Boustane near the border with Israel on July 18, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
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Israeli Airstrike Kills Several Hezbollah Members in South Lebanon

Smoke billows from a site targeted by Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Boustane near the border with Israel on July 18, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.  (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
Smoke billows from a site targeted by Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Boustane near the border with Israel on July 18, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)

An Israeli airstrike late Thursday killed members of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force at a home in southern Lebanon, state media and a Hezbollah official said.
A Hezbollah official said the strike killed several members of the secretive Radwan Force, which operates along the border. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, gave no further details or the names of the members killed.
The airstrike on the village of Jmaijmeh also wounded several people and ambulances rushed to the area, state-run National News Agency said. The agency did not immediately report deaths.
Earlier in the day, two separate drone strikes in south Lebanon and another in the eastern Bekaa Valley killed a Hezbollah member and an official of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya.

The Israeli military said it had killed a Radwan Force operations unit commander it named as Ali Jaafar Maatouk, along with another commander responsible for Radwan Force operations in the Hajir region. It said additional Radwan Force fighters were also killed in the strike.

Maatouk was killed in one of several strikes on the neighboring border villages of Safad El Battikh and Jmaijmeh, sources said. Eighteen wounded were taken to nearby Tebnine government hospital, its director Mohammed Hamadi told Reuters.



Italy Sends Humanitarian Flight with Aid for Gaza Population

Palestinians inspect the destroyed home of the Muheisen family following an Israeli airstrike in the Al Zwaida neighbourhood in the central Gaza Strip, 18 July 2024. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
Palestinians inspect the destroyed home of the Muheisen family following an Israeli airstrike in the Al Zwaida neighbourhood in the central Gaza Strip, 18 July 2024. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
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Italy Sends Humanitarian Flight with Aid for Gaza Population

Palestinians inspect the destroyed home of the Muheisen family following an Israeli airstrike in the Al Zwaida neighbourhood in the central Gaza Strip, 18 July 2024. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
Palestinians inspect the destroyed home of the Muheisen family following an Israeli airstrike in the Al Zwaida neighbourhood in the central Gaza Strip, 18 July 2024. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Italy has sent food supplies and health equipment for the Gaza population aboard a humanitarian flight that landed in Jordan, a statement said on Thursday, as part of Rome's "Food for Gaza" initiative to help civilians there.
Aid includes over 60 tons of food, hygiene kits and sanitary equipment, along with 150 tents. The flight, which departed from the southern city of Brindisi, has landed in the Jordan capital of Amman from where the materials will be delivered to Gaza.
"With this operation we give a tangible demonstration of the attention that the Italian government is dedicating to the humanitarian situation in the Strip," Reuters quoted Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani as saying.
He added Italy was committed "to do everything possible to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian population in Gaza."
The Food for Gaza initiative is led by Italy together with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food program (WFP) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
On Wednesday, the US military announced that its mission to install and operate a temporary, floating pier off the coast of Gaza was complete, formally ending an effort to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
Italy said in May it would allocate 30 million euros ($32.8 million) in the Food for Gaza plan, as it resumed funding for the United Nations' Palestinian relief organization UNRWA.

UNRWA faced criticism over allegations that some of its staff were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.