Hezbollah commander Abu Ali Rida ‘killed by Israel’ in attack on Lebanon | UK | News

Israel announced today that it has killed another senior Hezbollah commander in new attacks in Lebanon.

In a message on the official Telegram channel, the Israeli army claimed to have killed the militant chief, who it called Abu Ali Rida.

An Israeli army spokesman said Rida commanded the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon.

The IDF described him as “responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF forces.”

In the operational update, the Israeli military added: “IDF forces continue to conduct limited, localized, targeted attacks in southern Lebanon, dismantling terrorist infrastructure, locating weapons and eliminating terrorists.”

But large parts of the Lebanese population have been driven from their homes by Israel’s ongoing military action against Hezbollah.

According to Lebanese authorities, more than 2,800 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli attacks.

Tens of thousands of Israelis in the north of the country have also been driven from their homes by near-constant rocket fire from Hezbollah and other anti-Israel forces in Lebanon.

But as fighting continues in both Lebanon and Gaza, Israel yesterday formally notified the United Nations that it will ban the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, from operating in Israel.

After previously introducing new legislation, the Israeli Foreign Ministry formally announced the ban.

Unrwa operates 96 schools in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, serving 45,000 students, as well as 43 health centers, food distribution services for refugee families and psychological support services, according to the agency’s website.

It has played a crucial logistical role in facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza, and in providing shelter to displaced Palestinians.

“On the instructions of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between the State of Israel and Unrwa,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Israel has claimed that twelve Unrwa employees took part in the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The agency fired several staff as a result of an independent investigation, but says Israel’s broader accusations of staff in Gaza supporting Hamas are unfounded.

In a statement, Mr. Katz said: “Unrwa, the organization whose employees took part in the October 7 massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives, is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution.”

Unrwa’s mandate is to provide life-giving services to all who “lost both their homes and their livelihoods as a result of the 1948 conflict,” a mission that was expanded after the 1967 war, when the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories began.

Foreign Minister Mr Katz disputed that cutting off Unrwa would harm the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, which has been under siege by Israeli forces for more than a year and subject to aerial bombardment.

Nearly all of the area’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced from their homes at least once.

“Even now, the vast majority of humanitarian aid to Gaza is delivered through other organizations, and only 13 percent of that is delivered through Uurwa,” Katz said.

“The State of Israel is committed to international law and will continue to facilitate humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip in a manner that does not harm the security of the citizens of Israel.”