Israel continued air strikes on Gaza and Beirut on Sunday after Hezbollah targeted Benjamin Netanyahu’s home on Saturday.
The Iran-backed militant group launched a drone attack on Mr Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea, on the Israeli coast, in an apparent assassination attempt.
However, Mr Netanyahu said the attack on his home had been a “grave mistake”, signalling he would not de-escalate Israel’s strikes on Lebanon and Gaza.
He said: “This will not deter me or the State of Israel from continuing our just war against our enemies in order to secure our future.”
Despite hopes that violence would subside after the death of Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, Sunday marked one of the most deadly days in months for Palestinians.
i explains how Israel has responded to the targeting of Mr Netanyahu’s home, and how violence continues to escalate in the region.
Israel continues air strikes
In a statement, the Israeli military said it successfully targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters, killing three key commanders, including Alhaj Abbas Salameh, a senior figure in the group’s southern command.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) also claims to have killed Rada Abbas Awada, a communications expert, and Ahmad Ali Hussein, who it said was responsible for strategic weapons development.
“The IAF (Israeli Air Force) conducted an intelligence-based strike on a command centre of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters and an underground weapons workshop in Beirut,” the IDF said.
The IDF claimed Salameh oversaw combat in the Bint Jbeil area and “executed many terror attacks” against Israel.
It is not clear if the three were killed during the assault on the headquarters or in separate skirmishes.
The Israeli military has claimed that 100 rockets have been launched in retaliation from Lebanon since midnight, 70 of which arrived in a matter of minutes. While some rockets were shot down, others landed and started fires on the ground, according to the IDF.
The Lebanese army said three soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon but the IDF did not immediately comment on this claim.
How has violence escalated in Gaza?
Both Israel and Hamas have signalled an unwillingness to call a ceasefire in the wake of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s death, while Hezbollah continues to carry out rocket attacks.
In a telephone call with Mr Netanyahu on Saturday, Sir Keir Starmer urged a ceasefire in the Middle East after hopes that Israel would de-escalate strikes after it eliminated Sinwar.
Sinwar was considered the architect behind the 7 October attacks that triggered the last year of violence in the Middle East.
However, Israeli forces have intensified strikes in Jabalia. At least 87 people were reported “killed or missing” following the airstrike on Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza late on Saturday, the Palestinian health ministry said, in its latest update on Sunday. More than 40 others were injured, it added.
On Sunday there was one of the highest death tolls reported for months from a single attack. Israel said it was investigating reports of the incident.
According to Gaza’s Civil Defence, a group of homes and multi-storey buildings in the region were also levelled by Israeli airstrikes. It added that more than 400 civilians in the area had been killed over the past two weeks.
The United Nations denounced what it described as “horrifying scenes” in northern Gaza’s town of Beit Lahia. UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, “condemned the continued attacks on civilians”.
“This follows weeks of intensified operations, resulting in scores of civilian fatalities and near-total lack of humanitarian aid reaching populations in the north,” he added.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has also vowed that Hamas will fight on, despite the elimination of the militant group’s leader.
Netanyahu and Trump hold call
Mr Netanyahu spoke with former US president Donald Trump, the prime minister’s office said on Sunday.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated what he has also said publicly: Israel takes into account the issues the US administration raises, but in the end, will make its decisions based on its national interests,” a statement said.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Mr Trump seemed to reiterate the claim, telling his supporters that Mr Netanyahu “wouldn’t listen to Biden”.
Referring to Mr Netanyahu by his nickname “Bibi”, Trump said: “Bibi called me today and he said, it’s incredible. But he wouldn’t listen to Biden, because if he did, they wouldn’t be in this position.”
Trump added: “And I tell you what, they’re in a much stronger position now than they were three months ago, that’s for sure.”
US intelligence leak
The United States is investigating the leak of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel’s preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday.
The documents appear to have been prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, describing US interpretations of Israeli Air Force and Navy planning based on satellite imagery from 15-16 October.
They began circulating last week on the Telegram messaging app. Israel has been planning a response to a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by Iran on 1 October, its second direct attack on Israel in six months.
Israel has intensified its offensive in Gaza and Lebanon, days after the killing of Sinwar.
