Middle East updates: Israel strike kills Hezbollah commander

Israel said it was "evaluating" remarks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on a hostage deal, which could see Israeli hostages held since the October 7 attacks released.

A statement by the Israeli Mossad spy agency, published by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, said mediators had conveyed Hamas' remarks to the negotiating team.

"Israel is evaluating the remarks and will convey its reply to the mediators," the statement read.

The deal is also expected to include a cease-fire in Gaza, though that was not mentioned in the Mossad statement. It also was not clear whether that was the same deal unveiled by US President Joe Biden at the end of May. 

Hamas is designated as a terrorist group by Israel, the US, Germany and other countries.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had fired "100 Katyusha rockets" at two Israeli positions after its senior commander was killed by an Israeli strike earlier in the day in southern Lebanon.

The rockets targeted the headquarters of Israel's 210th division and the Kilaa air base in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Hezbollah said in a statement.

Hezbollah also launched Falaq rockets with heavy warheads targeting the headquarters of the Israeli military's 769th Brigade in Kiryat Shmona.

The attacks were "part of the response to the attack and assassination that the enemy carried out," the militant group said.

The Israeli army confirmed that it had "eliminated" Mohammed Naameh Nasser, saying he had been "the commander of the Hezbollah terrorist organization's Aziz Unit which is responsible for firing from southwestern Lebanon at Israeli territory."

An Israeli strike outside the southern Lebanese city of Tyre killed a senior field commander in the Lebanese, Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, Israeli security sources and Hezbollah sources told news agencies.

The killed commander was responsible for a section of Hezbollah's operations along the border frontier. This is where most confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have taken place since the Gaza war started.

The commander was killed when his vehicle was hit by an Israeli strike.

Sources said he was of the same rank and importance as Taleb Abdallah, another Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli strike last month. Abdallah was described as the most senior field commander in the group to be killed by the Israeli military in the past eight months.

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries, while the EU lists its armed wing as a terrorist group. 

An attacker stabbed two people at an Israeli mall in the northern town of Karmiel, killing one and seriously injuring another before authorities shot him. 

Police said they were treating the incident as a "suspected terror attack."

"The attacker, whose identity is still unknown, was neutralized on site and his death was confirmed at the scene by medical officials," Police Northern District commander Shuki Tahauka said.

Both victims were men in their 20s, Paramedic Ran Moskowitz said. They were rushed to hospital, where one man later died due to his wounds.

The Israeli government has approved the seizure of nearly 12.7 square kilometers (almost 5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley region in the occupied West Bank, according to Israel's Peace Now anti-settlement watchdog.

The group said this was the largest seizure of land by Israel since the 1993 Oslo Accords that established Palestinian self-governance in parts of the West Bank.

"[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich are determined to fight against the entire world and against the interests of the people of Israel for the benefit of a handful of settlers who receive thousands of [square kilometers] as if there were no political conflict to resolve or war to end," Peace Now said in a statement.

The West Bank has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. The United Nations and the International Court of Justice have classified Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory as illegal under international law.

More than 500,000 Israeli citizens live in the illegal settlements, many of which resemble small towns or developed suburbs. Some 3 million Palestinians live in the rest of the occupied territory.

The seizure of land in the Jordan Valley was approved last month but only published on Wednesday.

It comes after Israel declared 8 square kilometers in the West Bank to be state lands in March and 2.6 square kilometers in February.

The designation as state land allows the territory to be leased by Israelis and prohibits private Palestinian ownership.

Two people were wounded in a stabbing attack in an Israeli mall, according to Israeli police.

Police called the incident a suspected terror attack and said the attacker had been "neutralized."

The shopping center is located in the town of Karmiel in northern Israel's Galilee.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Israeli medics said they were treating two men in their 20s. One was in a very serious condition while the other was fully conscious, they said.

A dozen former US government officials have accused Washington of "undeniable complicity" in the deaths of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

A joint statement by the former officials said US President Joe Biden's administration was violating US laws by sending arms to Israel.

"America's diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to, Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza," the statement said.

The former officials called on the United States to use its diplomatic and political leverage to bring the war to an end and to expand aid deliveries to Gaza.

Israel's offensive in Gaza has increasingly come under international pressure over the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.

Over a million people have been displaced in the fighting since October 7, and the territory's population is experiencing widespread hunger. Nearly 38,000 people have been killed during the war, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Israeli operations in Gaza began after the Hamas militant Islamist group attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the EU, the US, Germany and several other states.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinians in the Nur Shams camp in the occupied West Bank.

The ministry is part of the Ramallah-based Palestinian National Authority that governs parts of the West Bank.

Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that the dead were men between the ages of 20 and 25.

Violence in the West Bank has increased since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Hamas militant Islamist group.

At least 556 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Only a small group of around two to three people know the current location of Yahya Sinwar, a leader of the Hamas militant Islamist group, according to Hamas sources cited by the London-based and Saudi-funded media outlet Asharq Al-Awsat.

Sinwar is the most senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip and is believed to have planned the October 7 terror attacks on Israel that killed about 1,200 people.

According to the sources cited by the report, Sinwar maintains contact with other Hamas leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, who heads the Qatar-based Hamas Political Bureau.

The sources did not specify whether Sinwar was hiding above ground or in the Gaza Strip's network of tunnels.

The report said Sinwar would not accept a deal with Israel that would have him exiled from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly said the war in Gaza would not end until Hamas was eliminated. 

Hamas is classified as a terror group by Israel, Germany, the United States and several other countries.

sdi/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)