An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, has been killed in an alleged Israeli strike in Damascus yesterday that demolished Iran’s consulate in the Syrian capital.
Zahedi, a top commander in IRGC’s Quds force, was responsible for Iranian operations in Syria and Lebanon, including the transfer of weapons to militant groups.
He was killed yesterday afternoon along with his deputy Sardar Haji Rahimi and five Iranian officials when the Iranian consulate building was hit by a missile, according to an official statement by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
[ Attacks on Hizbullah in Syria and Lebanon intensifying, Israel claimsOpens in new window ]
The Iranian embassy, opposite the consulate, was not hit and Iran’s ambassador was unharmed but Tehran accused Israel of violating its sovereignty by attacking the consulate.
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Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Israel should be held accountable for the repercussions of the attack, while the country’s envoy to Syria vowed a “decisive response”.
The attack came just hours after a drone, launched by a pro-Iranian militia based in Iraq, landed in an Israeli naval base in the Red Sea resort of Eilat at the southern tip of Israel on Sunday night, damaging a building.
The Israeli military are investigating why the drone was not intercepted.
Meanwhile, the Hamas authorities in Gaza have accused Israel of deliberately setting fire to wards in Gaza city’s Al-Shifa hospital and razing buildings in and around the complex, rendering Gaza’s biggest medical facility unusable.
The claims came after the Israeli military completed a two-week operation in the hospital as Al-Shifa officials said dozens of bodies were taken from the ruins.
Hamas called on the International Criminal Court to investigate what it termed “Israeli crimes and atrocities” in the hospital.
Israeli forces launched a surprise attack on Al-Shifa two weeks ago, accusing Hamas and Islamic Jihad of turning the hospital into a militant command centre to re-establish their presence in the northern Gaza Strip.
According to the Israeli military, more than 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were arrested in the course of the Al-Shifa operation, and more than 200 gunmen were killed, in what Israel described as one of the most significant operations of the war.
“The forces found large quantities of weapons, intelligence documents throughout the hospital, encountered terrorists in close-quarters battles and engaged in combat while avoiding harm to the medical staff and patients,” the army said. A commander also said that the hospital operation may yield “significant information” about the hostages.
Hamas and medics deny any armed presence in hospitals.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, more than 32,800 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages seized in the surprise Hamas attack on October 7th. Some 134 hostages, dead and alive, remain in Hamas captivity.
Israeli intelligence and defence officials, led by top advisers Tzachi Hanegbi and Ron Dermer, were due to hold a virtual meeting on Monday night with US defence and intelligence officials, led by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, to discuss Israeli plans to attack the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million refugees found shelter.
[ Israeli troops leave Gaza’s Shifa Hospital a wreck in sea of rubbleOpens in new window ]
Washington has made clear its opposition to a ground offensive in Rafah but Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu made it clear on Sunday night that nothing would stop the Rafah operation. Last month, he cancelled a trip by Mr Hanegbi and Mr Dermer to Washington to protest at the US refusing to veto a United Nations ceasefire resolution.
Mr Netanyahu has vowed to stop Al-Jazeera, the Qatari state-funded television station from operating in Israel. Israel’s Knesset parliament on Monday night passed the second and third reading of a Bill allowing the prime minister to close down the station, which is considered by Israel to be pro-Hamas and pro-Hizbullah. - Additional reporting: agencies
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