GAZA: The Zionist entity said Wednesday its forces were carrying out “offensive action” in Lebanon after launching cross-border strikes targeting Hamas ally Hezbollah as Zionist aircraft and tanks pounded the Gaza Strip. Since the Zionist-Hamas war erupted on Oct 7, Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group and Zionist forces have traded near-daily fire, heightening fears of a wider conflict breaking out.

In war-battered Gaza, there has been mounting concern over Zionist plans to launch an assault on the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where 1.5 million people have sought refuge, many in makeshift encampments. Aid groups warn any invasion would create catastrophic conditions for civilians, but government spokesman David Mencer said the Zionist entity was “moving ahead” with its operation in Rafah, which Zionist officials have described as the “last” major Hamas stronghold where fighters may be holding captives.

Hamas on Wednesday released a video showing a man it said was one of the 129 captives the Zionist entity estimates remain in Gaza, a number that includes 34 presumed dead. Also on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden signed a bill authorizing $13 billion in military aid to close ally the Zionist entity. The bill also included $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, which Biden demanded the Zionist entity allow reach Palestinians “without delay”.

Regional tensions remain high more than 200 days into the devastating war. Zionist Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “many forces are deployed” along the northern border, claiming the military has eliminated “half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon” in months of violence. The Zionist entity has struck increasingly deeper into Lebanon, while Hezbollah has stepped up rocket fire and drone attacks on Israeli military bases across the border.

“IDF (military) forces are currently carrying out offensive action throughout southern Lebanon”, Gallant said, without specifying whether ground troops had crossed the border. Early Wednesday, hospital and security sources in Gaza reported Zionist air strikes in Rafah as well as the central Nuseirat refugee camp. An AFP correspondent and witnesses reported heavy bombardment in northern Gaza overnight.

Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted the assault on Rafah will go ahead, despite opposition from humanitarian groups and countries including the US. Citing Egyptian officials briefed on Zionist plans, the Wall Street Journal has said the Zionist entity was planning to move civilians to nearby Khan Yunis over a period of two to three weeks, before gradually sending in troops.

“There is no safe place in all of Gaza except for this area here,” displaced Palestinian man Samer Felfel told AFP at a makeshift displacement camp near the territory’s border with Egypt. If Zionist troops enter Rafah, “there will be no safe place left”, he added. Satellite images shared by Maxar Technologies showed new blocks of tents that had been set up in recent weeks in southern Gaza.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas government media office said an invasion would be a “crime” and that central Gaza and Khan Yunis “cannot accommodate the numbers of displaced people in Rafah”. The Zionist entity’s military offensive has killed at least 34,262 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Zionist media identified the hostage appearing in Hamas’ latest video as 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a dual US-Zionist citizen captured on October 7 from the site of a music festival near the Gaza border. His mother Rachel Goldberg said earlier this month “we need results” out of stalled mediation efforts to end the war and free the captives. “We need our people home,” she said.

Exchanges of fire between the Zionist entity and Lebanese militants since October 7 have killed at least 380 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also 72 civilians, according to an AFP tally. The Zionist entity says 11 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed on its side of the border. The Israeli army on Wednesday said its forces struck around 40 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, with Lebanese official media reporting at least 13 strikes on several villages.

The strikes came after Hezbollah announced a fresh barrage of rockets across the border in retaliation for a deadly strike that killed two civilians. Gallant said the military’s objectives include enabling the safe return of residents of the border area displaced by the violence, who number in their tens of thousands in both northern the Zionist entity and southern Lebanon.

The European Union and the UN rights office have called for a probe into reports of mass graves found at the Gaza Strip’s two biggest hospitals after Zionist raids. Gaza’s Civil Defense agency said nearly 340 bodies were uncovered at the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis. The Zionist army said “corpses buried by Palestinians” had been examined by soldiers searching for hostages but did not directly address allegations that Zionist troops were behind the killings.

UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said some of the bodies found at Nasser Hospital were allegedly “found with their hands tied and stripped of their clothes”, though efforts were underway to corroborate the reports. The war has left much of Gaza in ruins, including the besieged territory’s health system. – AFP