A closer look at the fighting on Israel’s border with Lebanon

HAIFA, Israel — Troops from Israel and Hezbollah are sitting on either side of the border between Israel and Lebanon, watching and waiting to see what the other does as they communicate through a language of strikes and artillery shells, each range and caliber used signifying a different message.

One group of Israeli troops has been camped out for a month. When the order comes, they have four minutes to load their canon, aim and fire, often into no man’s land, to avoid escalating the conflict into a war.

There are very simple rules of engagement, an IDF Lt Col. told NBC News, explaining that his troops know where to shoot to avoid escalation.

Patients in corridors, U.N. agencies say as they deliver aid to Al-Shifa hospital

Critical medical supplies were delivered to the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City yesterday, U.N. agencies said, making it the second such supply to the crisis-hit hospital near the center of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

“The emergency department and wards are overflowing requiring doctors and medical workers to treat wounded and sick patients in the corridors, on the floor, and outdoors,” the United Nations Relief and Works agency said in a joint statement with the World Health Organization.

Patients at the hospital were undergoing immense pain as anesthetics are running out, the statement added, with the aid delivered “far from sufficient.”

IDF says it destroyed 130 Hamas tunnel shafts in Gaza

As Israel’s ground operation inside Gaza continued within the strip, the Israel Defense Forces said its troops have destroyed a total of 130 tunnel shafts used by Hamas since the war began.

“The enemy’s preparation for a prolonged stay in the tunnels can be seen based on water and oxygen means found in the tunnels,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

U.S. hits Iranian facility in Syria, sending a message amid escalating attacks

U.S. fighter jets conducted “a self-defense strike” at a weapons storage facility in Syria that was being used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday.

The strike in eastern Syria was carried out at President Joe Biden’s direction, Austin said in a statement. “This precision self-defense strike is a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by IRGC-Quds Force affiliates,” Austin said.

The message to Iran is “we want you to direct your proxies and militia groups to stop attacking us,” a senior defense official said. 

Read the full story here.

A child mourns a lost relative in Khan Younis, Gaza

A Palestinian woman from the Abu Taim family comforts a little girl as they collect the body of a relative for burial from the al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza this morning.