Israel says it has carried out a ground attack on Syria, seizing a Syrian national with ties to Iran

The Israeli military said on Sunday it carried out a ground attack on Syria, capturing a Syrian citizen involved in Iranian networks. It was the first time in the current war that Israel announced that its forces would operate on Syrian territory.

Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria several times in the past yeartargeting members of the Lebanese Hezbollah and officials from Iran, the close ally of both Hezbollah and Syria. But it has not previously disclosed ground attacks into Syria.

The Israeli military said the seizure was part of a special operation “that took place in recent months,” although it did not say exactly when it took place. Syria did not immediately confirm the announcement, but a pro-government Syrian radio station, Sham FM, reported on Sunday that Israeli forces carried out a “kidnapping operation” this summer targeting a man in the south of the country.

Israel has waged an escalating bombing campaign in Lebanon over the past six weeks, as well as a ground invasion along the countries’ shared border, vowing to cripple Hezbollah. On Saturday, an Israeli military official said naval forces carried out a raid on a northern Lebanese town, capturing a man they called a senior Hezbollah operative.

The military identified the man as Ali Soleiman al-Assi and said he lives in Syria’s southern Saida region. According to the report, the man had been under military surveillance for months and was involved in Iranian initiatives targeting areas of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near the border with Syria.

Body camera footage of the raid released by the military showed soldiers arresting a man in a white tank top inside a building. The man was taken to Israel for questioning, the army said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border with Lebanon on Sunday and said his focus was on stopping Hezbollah from rearming itself through the “oxygen lifeline” of Iranian weapons transferred to Lebanon through Syria. Israel says its campaign in Lebanon aims to push Hezbollah away from the border and end the group’s more than a year of shelling in northern Israel.

More than 2,500 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon over the past year. 69 people have been killed by Hezbollah projectiles in Israel.

During the US presidential campaign this weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged progressives and members of the state’s significant Arab population who are angry with the Biden administration over the continuation of the US alliance with Israel, while the Netanyahu administration is pressing its war against Hamas. in Gaza.

“I have said very clearly that the death rate among innocent Palestinians is unconscionable,” Harris told reporters.

In East Lansing, Michigan, they addressed the issue shortly after she began her comments. “As president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza, to bring the hostages home, to end the suffering in Gaza, to ensure that Israel is safe and to ensure that Palestinian people can realize their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination. she said.

Some students in East Lansing voiced their opposition Sunday with audible calls for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. At least one participant was escorted out after the ceasefire calls.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue their offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, where the army says it is battling Hamas fighters who have regrouped there.

Shell fire hit the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, wounding patients including children, hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya said in a statement to the media. He said the shells hit the hospital’s nursery, dormitory and water tanks just after a World Health Organization delegation ended a visit.

Kamal Adwan and two other nearby hospitals have been hit several times by Israel during the fighting. Earlier this month, Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan and detained a large number of people, including many of the staff, Abu Safiya said at the time of the raid. The military said those arrested included members of Hamas, without providing evidence, and that weapons had been found at the facility.

But the Israeli military denied in a statement Sunday that it had attacked Kamal Adwan, blaming “an explosive device planted by the terrorist organizations in Gaza” for the attack.

“Attacks on civilians, including humanitarian workers, and what remains of Gaza’s civilian facilities and infrastructure must stop,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement on Saturday. “The entire Palestinian population in northern Gaza, especially children, is at immediate risk of death from disease, famine and the continued bombing.”

In southern Gaza, an Israeli strike struck a group of people gathered outside in an eastern district of Khan Younis, killing at least eight Palestinians, including four children and a woman, Health Ministry emergency services said in the area. The city’s Nasser Hospital, which received the most bodies, confirmed the figures.

Palestinian officials said an Israeli drone strike on Saturday hit a clinic in northern Gaza where children were being vaccinated against polio, wounding six people, including four children. The Israeli military denied responsibility.

Dr. Munir al-Boursh, director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, told The Associated Press that a quadcopter struck the Sheikh Radwan Clinic in Gaza City early Saturday afternoon, just a few minutes after a United Nations delegation entered the facility had left.

UNICEF and WHO, which are jointly implementing the polio vaccination campaign, expressed concern over the reported strike. Rosalia Bollen, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said the strike took place while a “humanitarian pause” was in effect, which Israel had agreed to allow vaccinations.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said that “contrary to claims, an initial investigation showed that the (Israeli army) did not strike in the area at the stated time.”

It was not possible to resolve the conflicting accounts. Israeli forces have repeatedly raided hospitals in Gaza over the course of the war, saying Hamas uses them for militant purposes, accusations denied by Palestinian health officials. Hamas fighters also operate in the north, battling Israeli forces.

Northern Gaza has been surrounded by Israeli forces for the past year and largely isolated. Israel has carried out another offensive there in recent weeks, killing hundreds of people and displacing tens of thousands.

A scaled-down campaign to administer a second dose of the polio vaccine began in parts of northern Gaza on Saturday. It was postponed until October 23 due to lack of access, Israeli bombing and mass evacuation orders, and the lack of guarantees for humanitarian breaks, a UN statement said.

The first doses were administered in September across the Gaza Strip, including the north.

At least 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate from areas of northern Gaza to Gaza City in recent weeks, but around 15,000 children under the age of 10 remain in inaccessible northern towns, including Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun. according to the UN

The final phase of the polio vaccination campaign aimed to reach an estimated 119,000 children in the north with a second dose of the oral polio vaccine, the agencies said, but “achieving this target is now unlikely due to access restrictions.”

They say 90% of children in every community need to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.

The campaign was launched after the first polio case in 25 years was reported in Gaza: a ten-month-old boy, now paralyzed in the leg. The World Health Organization said the presence of one paralysis case suggests there could be hundreds more who are infected but not showing symptoms.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping another 250. The Israeli offensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Say how many fighters there were, but say that more than half were women and children.