Middle East latest: Netanyahu says Israel has ‘settled its account’ with Sinwar

Syria's military said an Israeli strike early Thursday wounded two civilians and damaged a military post. Israel regularly targets military sites in Syria linked to Iran and to Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group and has escalated its campaign against Hezbollah in recent weeks, after a year of near-daily exchanges of cross-border fire.

Lebanon says more than 2,400 people have been killed in the past year and 77% of public schools are out of service, either due to their use as shelters or their location in areas directly affected by the war.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel's security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

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Here's the latest:

ADELAIDE, Australia - Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s death is an opportunity to end the war in Gaza.

“Sinwar was a terrorist who caused untold suffering to so many people and his violence culminated in the worst loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust. Sinwar’s death is an opportunity for this war to end,” Wong told reporters in Adelaide on Friday.

Israel says Sinwar was killed in a battle with Israeli forces in Rafah on Wednesday.

“We again call for a ceasefire, we again call for all the hostages to come home, and we again call for humanitarian aid to be delivered into Gaza," Wong said.

LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says his thoughts are with Hamas’ victims in the wake of confirmation by Israel that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead.

In a statement Thursday, Starmer called Sinwar "the mastermind behind the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust, as 1,200 people were slaughtered in Israel,” referring to the raid by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023.

The militants also took some 250 hostages that day, and about 100 remain inside Gaza, although about a third of them are believed dead.

Starmer says the “release of all hostages, an immediate ceasefire and an increase in humanitarian aid are long overdue so we can move towards a long-term, sustainable peace in the Middle East.”

He says his thoughts are with the victims' families and that the “UK will not mourn his death."

JERUSALEM — Israel military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar may have been forced to come above ground because Israeli forces were operating in the area where he had been hiding for weeks.

Hagari said Thursday that some of Sinwar's DNA was found in tunnels close to the area where Israeli soldiers discovered the bodies of six hostages in August. Israeli forces spent weeks carefully combing the area in hopes of finding other hostages and likely came close to Sinwar, Hagari says.

Hagari says they believe Sinwar came above ground to escape further north when he encountered Israeli soldiers and tried to flee to a nearby building.

“We continued operating in that area with determination, we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss anything,” he said.

The Israeli military also released a drone video showing what it says were Sinwar’s last moments.

Hagari says Israeli forces operating in the southern city of Rafah identified and attempted to shoot three Hamas militants running from building to building on Wednesday. The militants entered a building, which the Israeli army shelled. The military then sent a camera drone inside the building.

The footage shows the drone encountering a man the army says was Sinwar, his face covered with a cloth. One of his hands had been wounded by gunfire, but he threw a stick to try to break the drone with his other hand.

The military later fired another shell at the building, causing it to collapse and killing Sinwar.

Hagari says Sinwar was found with a bulletproof vest, grenades, and 40,000 shekels ($10,700).

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Some Palestinians displaced by the yearlong conflict in Gaza see a glimmer of hope that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar could bring an end to the war.

“When we heard the news of Sinwar, it is true that we were sad for him, but at the same time we were happy that the war could end,” said Um Mohammed, a woman displaced from Gaza City in northern Gaza. She said she wanted desperately for the war to end so she could go home.

In Deir al-Balah, where many displaced Palestinians have fled over the past year, others called Sinwar’s death “a tragedy” and noted that he had died in an honorable way.

“It will not affect the interest of the country,” said Ahmad Hamdouna, who was also displaced from Gaza City. “After the leader a thousand of leaders will come, and after the man a thousand of men will come.”

TEL AVIV — Hundreds of people demonstrating in Tel Aviv are calling for the release of hostages being held in Gaza after the news of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s killing broke.

The protesters chanted, “Bring them all back – now!” Others carried signs saying, “Sinwar’s end, end the war.”

“On the one hand I’m happy that Sinwar is murdered, but in the second, I’m really, really scared,” Ifat Kalderon said Thursday night. Her cousin, Ofer Kalderon, is one of the hostages being held in Gaza. “I’m scared about the 101 hostages. ... They might murder them or do something because of the murder of Sinwar.”

Hamas militants kidnapped approximately 250 people and killed 1,200 during their attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Many were released in a weeklong cease-fire deal last November, but about 100 remain inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza following the attack has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is a “good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world,” comparing it to the feeling in the U.S. after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Israel says Sinwar was killed on Wednesday in Gaza.

Biden said Thursday he will speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them “and to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all.”

Biden says with Sinwar’s death “there is now the opportunity for a “day after” in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee echoed Biden's comments.

“While justice has been served to Sinwar, let us not forget that the terrorist network he headed still holds dozens of people hostage in Gaza, and we must continue to press for their safe return,” Sen. Mark Warner said.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s crisis response unit says 45 people were killed and 179 were wounded in the past 24 hours.

The new numbers announced Thursday raise the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,412 killed and 11,285 wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The crisis response unit report also recorded 96 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh province.

Some 1,096 centers — including educational complexes, vocational institutes, universities, and other institutions — are currently sheltering 190,882 people, including 44,121 families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the report says.

Among these shelters, 900 are full. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the U.N. children’s agency.

The Lebanese Ministry of Education has reported that 77% of public schools are out of service, either due to their use as shelters or their location in areas directly affected by the war.

People continue to flow across the Lebanon-Syria border. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 17, Lebanese General Security has recorded 333,893 Syrian citizens and 132,074 Lebanese citizens who have crossed into Syria, the report said.

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has “settled its account” with “the person who carried out the worst massacre in the history of our people since the Holocaust.”

Israel says Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' top leader, was killed in fighting in Gaza on Wednesday. Sinwar was a chief architect of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that left 1,200 people dead. Some 250 people were taken hostage in the cross-border raid.

Netanyahu addressed the families of the hostages Thursday saying it was an “important moment in the war” to bring home the hostages. He also said anyone who surrendered weapons and assisted with the return of the hostages would be allowed to leave Gaza safely.

Still, he added, “our war has not yet ended.”

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The prosecution office of the International Criminal Court, which in May requested an arrest warrant for Yahya Sinwar for his role in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, says it is “aware of the reports” of his death.

Israel says Sinwar was killed Wednesday in a battle with Israeli forces in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip.

In a written response to questions from AP, the office said Thursday that, “In line with standard practice, the Office will take relevant action if sufficient information is received confirming his death.”

If his death is confirmed, the office will withdraw its application for the warrant.

BERLIN — German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is calling on Hamas to release all remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza now that the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed.

Israel says Sinwar was killed in a battle with Israeli forces in Rafah on Wednesday.

“Sinwar was a brutal murderer and terrorist who wanted to destroy Israel and its people,” she said in a statement Thursday. “As the mastermind of the terror on October 7, he brought death to thousands of people and immeasurable suffering to an entire region.”

“Hamas must now immediately release all hostages and lay down its arms, the suffering of the people of Gaza must finally end,” Baerbock demanded.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister has hailed the Israeli military for killing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar,

Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said Sinwar’s killing sends “a clear message to the residents of Gaza. The man who brought disaster and death to the Gaza strip, the man who made you suffer as a result of his murderous actions — the end of this man has come.”

Sinwar was killed in Rafah on Wednesday after an Israeli tank launched a shell at a building, causing it to collapse. The soldiers were on a regular patrol in Gaza when they encountered a number of Hamas militants. They were not specifically searching for Sinwar.

Photos of Sinwar published by Israeli media show a man wearing a bulletproof vest, surrounded by grenades, lying in the rubble of a building with a head wound. He was not surrounded by hostages or using them as human shields when he was killed.

BRUSSELS — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has condemned Hamas top leader Yahya Sinwar, who Israel says has been killed by Israeli troops in Gaza.

At a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenskky in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte told reporters that Sinwar “is widely recognized as the architect of the Oct. 7th, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel. I have condemned them, all allies have condemned them. Every reasonable soul in the world has condemned them. So if he has died, I personally will not miss him.”

JERUSALEM — Israel’s foreign minister has confirmed that Israeli troops in Gaza have killed Hamas top leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of the Oct. 7 attack.

Sinwar has topped Israel’s most-wanted list since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war just over a year ago, and his killing strikes a powerful blow to the militant group. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas of his death.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Sinwar’s killing Wednesday a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army.”

The death of Sinwar “will create the possibility to immediately release the hostages and to bring a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza - without Hamas and without Iranian control,” he said in a statement Thursday.

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This item has been corrected to show Sinwar was killed Wednesday and that his death was announced Thursday.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. has imposed sanctions on 18 companies, people and ships across Panama, the Marshall Islands, India and more for their alleged ties to sanctioned Houthi and Iranian financial facilitator Sa'id al-Jamal.

Captains of vessels transporting sanctioned Iranian oil and companies that managed and operated the ships that transported the oil have also been also sanctioned. The Treasury said Thursday that revenue from al-Jamal’s network enables Houthi attacks in the region.

Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith says his agency “remains committed to utilizing all available tools to disrupt this key source of illicit revenue that enables the Houthis’ destabilizing activities.”

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medical officials say the death toll from an Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering has risen to 28.

The Israeli military said the strike on Thursday targeted dozens of militants who were meeting inside the school in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza.

Fares Abu Hamza, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency unit in the north, said the death toll had climbed to 28, with another 98 people wounded.

Israel has been waging a large military operation in Jabaliya, an urban refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war, for more than a week now. It has once again called on all residents of northern Gaza to flee south, and it allowed no food aid to enter the north for around two weeks at the start of the month.

Its forces have repeatedly returned to Jabaliya and other areas of Gaza after saying that militants had regrouped there.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government has evacuated dozens of Filipino workers from Lebanon, including one who urged thousands of compatriots to leave the war-hit nation before it’s too late.

The 45 Filipino workers and two children who arrived Thursday in the Philippine capital were a fraction of about 10,000 to 11,000 Filipinos, many of whom have refused to leave their jobs in Lebanon for their poverty-stricken homeland.

“I hope they would return home because it has become too dangerous there,” Felicilda Aboc, a 56-year-old who has worked for 18 years as a house helper in Lebanon, told reporters at Manila’s international airport. She recounted how a powerful blast two days ago shook the house where she worked.

The Philippine government has offered free chartered flights, cash and new livelihood training to encourage Filipinos in Lebanon to return home but has yet to issue a mandatory evacuation order.

“I was told that even if the bombs are in front of them, they may not go home as long as they still have employers,” Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said of the many Filipinos in Lebanon.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it is looking into whether Hamas top leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in a military operation in Gaza.

The military said in a statement Thursday that three militants were killed during operations in Gaza, without elaborating. It said the identities of the three were so far not confirmed, but it was “checking the possibility” that one of the three was Sinwar.

Sinwar was one of the chief architects of Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. He was chosen as the group’s top leader following the assassination of Ismael Haniyeh in July in an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital Tehran.

BERLIN — The German military says a German navy ship deployed to the U.N. peacekeeping mission off the Lebanese coast has intercepted and brought down a drone.

The military said a defense system on board the corvette, the Ludwigshafen am Rhein, brought the drone down in the water around 5 a.m. Thursday and that the drone’s explosive load detonated in the process.

It said it did not know where the drone came from. The military didn’t specify the location of the ship at the time of the incident.

The Ludwigshafen am Rhein is currently participating in the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon. Germany also has soldiers at the mission’s headquarters in Naqoura.

OSLO, Norway — Norway's foreign ministry says the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut has been evacuated after receiving a “bomb threat.” No one has been injured.

A spokeswoman said Thursday that the few Norwegian diplomats in Beirut are all safe.

“The acts of war in Lebanon make the security situation very unpredictable and tense. This threat is another example of that,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Simenstad said.

“The Foreign Ministry is continuously assessing the situation, including the safety of our colleagues who work in Beirut. The embassy has already implemented measures, as we have routines for in situations like this."

An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in northern Gaza on Thursday killed at least 15 people, including four children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The Israeli military said the strike targeted dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who had gathered at the school.

The strike hit the Abu Hussein school in Jabaliya, an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza where Israel has been waging a major air and ground operation for more than a week.

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This item has been corrected to show four children were confirmed dead in the strike, not five.

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BEIRUT — A Hezbollah official says the aim of the group’s military command is to keep fighting “with all available means” to prevent Israel from achieving its goals and to eventually agree on a cease-fire.

Legislator Hassan Fadlallah told reporters Thursday that since Israel’s invasion began on Oct. 1, Israeli troops have not captured any villages.

Fadlallah says his group's aim is to stop the war, but he refused to go into details except to say Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker and caretaker prime minister are leading the efforts.

“Our goal today is to end the aggression. We will not go into any detail related to the mechanism or solutions,” he said, when asked whether Hezbollah still insists that it will only stop fighting once Israel’s offensive on Gaza stops.

Fadlallah says Israel has not been able to push deeper into Lebanon, stop Hezbollah rocket fire or create the conditions for its citizens to return to communities in the north near the border, which Israel says is its main war aim.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli strike on a tent camp in the Gaza Strip killed three men and wounded eight other people, including women and children.

The bodies were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah after the strike on Thursday. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies.

There has been no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israel has repeatedly struck tent camps and schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza. The military says it carries out precise strikes on militants who shelter among civilians, putting them in danger.

Hamas-led militants triggered the war when they stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. Some 100 captives are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says women and children make up a little more than half of the fatalities.

CAIRO — Iran’s foreign minister has paid a rare visit to Egypt to discuss regional tensions linked to Israel’s war with Iran-allied groups in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Abbas Araghchi met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi and other top officials on Thursday to discuss how to de-escalate tensions, according to an Egyptian statement.

Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel and is a close U.S. ally. Araghchi visited Jordan, another close U.S. ally, on Wednesday.

Israel has vowed to respond to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month, raising fears of a regionwide war that could draw in the U.S. and its allies.

Egypt and Jordan have repeatedly called for a cease-fire in Gaza, and Egypt has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it has killed a local Hezbollah commander in a southern Lebanese town near the border.

The military said Thursday that an airstrike on Bint Jbeil killed Hussein Awada, who it said was in charge of firing projectiles into Israel from areas near the town.

Israeli strikes in recent weeks have killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his senior commanders.

Also Thursday, the Israeli military warned people to stay away from two buildings in the eastern villages of Saraaine and Tamnine, in the Bekaa Valley, where Israel has carried out scores of airstrikes over the past two weeks.

TEHRAN, Iran — The chief of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has threatened Israel with more missile barrages if it strikes Iran.

“Do not repeat your mistake — if you misbehave, if you strike anything of ours either in the region or in Iran, we will again hit you painfully,” Gen. Hossein Salami said Thursday during a funeral ceremony for Iranian Guard commander Abbas Nilforoushan, who was killed alongside the head of the Hezbollah militant group in Beirut in September.

Salami says an Iranian missile barrage on Israel earlier in October in retaliation for killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Nilforoushan was the "tiniest" action by Iran. He says an air defense battery deployed to Israel by the U.S. will not prevent Iranian retaliation.

“We do know about your weakness, and you know too,” Salami said.

Iran is the main backer of Hezbollah and supports militant groups opposed to Israel across the region, including Hamas.

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s military says Israel carried out a strike early Thursday in the coastal city of Latakia, wounding two civilians and damaging a military post.

The military statement that was carried by state media did not give further details.

Israel regularly targets military sites in Syria linked to Iran and to Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group. Those strikes have become more frequent after exchanges of fire along the Lebanon-Israel border began in October 2023, with Hezbollah attacking Israeli posts in support of the Palestinians and its ally, Hamas.

The exchanges intensified over the past three weeks, and on Oct. 1, Israel began a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Long-range American B-2 stealth bombers have launched airstrikes targeting underground bunkers used by Yemen's Houthi rebels, officials said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what damage was done in the strikes early Thursday.

However, there have been no previous reports of the B-2 Spirit being used in the strikes targeting the Houthis, who have been attacking ships for months in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

The Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel reported airstrikes around Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, which the group has held since 2014. They also reported strikes around the Houthi stronghold of Saada. They offered no immediate information on damage or casualties.

United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the B-2 bombers targeted “five hardened underground weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.”

The strike also appeared to be an indirect warning to Iran, the Houthis' main benefactor, which has targeted Israel with ballistic missile attacks twice over the past year. The nuclear-capable B-2, which first saw action in 1999 in the Kosovo War, is rarely used by the U.S. military in combat as each aircraft is worth some $1 billion.