Israeli defense minister: 'half of Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon killed' (2024)

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign in an interview held on Monday with Irish broadcaster RTÉ's Six One News.

"We recognize Israel's right to protect itself. We reject the policy and the practice of Netanyahu — terrible. What could be worse than what he has done in response?" Pelosi said, adding: "He should resign, he's ultimately responsible."

Asked whether Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace, Pelosi responded: "I don't know whether he's afraid of peace, incapable of peace, or just doesn't want peace. But he has been an obstacle to the two-state solution."

The Israel Air Force and the artillery corps struck some 40 Hezbollah targets near the southern Lebanon village Ayta ash-Shab, according to a statement by the Israeli army.

The statement added that among the targets were storage facilities, combat equipment and infrastructure.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that "half of Hezbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated, these are the people responsible for offensive actions." According to him, "the other half is hiding and abandoning southern Lebanon to IDF operations."

Gallant, who held operational discussions this morning at the army's northern command, added that "our main goal was and remains to create a different security situation here, and the residents of northern Israel can return to their homes quietly and safely. We are considering several alternatives to solidify the matter, and the near future will be decisive in this regard."

A Likud lawmaker criticized on Wednesday a demonstration held by family members of Israeli hostages held in Gaza in which they threw bread painted in red into Tel Aviv's defense headquarters on Tuesday.

MK Galit Distal Atbaryan said in a tweet that the act was "not an act intended to shock the public because we've forgotten the hostages, and that the demonstration is "a protest by chameleons which masquarades as something else each time, a protest that uses and throws away. Allegedly against corruption, allegedly against a judicial coup, allegedly because of the hostages, but always beneath the masked ball ... lies one true reason: a war of attrition by an aggressive minority against the Jewish tradition of the majority of the people of Israel."

Danny Elgarat, whose brother Itzhak Elgarat is in Hamas captivity responded to the Likud lawmaker saying that "no one has the right to criticize my actions to save my brother, so long as they're not in my shoes."

"Why don't you send your brother, return mine and then we can be objective," Elgarat clapped back at Distal Atbaryan, suggesting she is trying to step on the hostages to "return to her status" in Israel's ruling party.

Sirens were activated in the area of the Kissufim community on the Gaza border.

Columbia University said that it was making "important progress" with pro-Palestinian student protesters who set up a tent encampment and that it was extending a deadline to clear out, yet standoffs remained tense.

Student protesters "have committed to dismantling and removing a significant number of tents," the university said in a statement. A smaller encampment remained on campus on Wednesday morning.

Across the country, protesters at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, some 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of San Francisco, started using furniture, tents, chains and zip ties to block the building's entrances Monday evening.

■ A Palestinian woman was shot dead after attempting to stab soldiers at an intersection near Hebron.

■ A senior Hamas official said that the organization offered to release 40 hostages in the first phase of a hostage release deal, not 20 as was reported in Israel.

■ The IDF attacked numerous Hezbollah targets in southern Israel throughout the morning. Following a direct hit by anti-tank missiles to two homes in northern Israel, the army attacked dozens more targets.

■ Five hundred bereaved families who lost loved ones in the October 7 attacks asked Defense Minister Gallant to allow them to speak at Memorial Day ceremonies, instead of speeches by government and Knesset representatives.

■ Army data shows 10 Israeli soldiers were wounded in fighting on Tuesday, two seriously.

■ Israeli air force planes attacked rocket launchers located in a humanitarian aid area in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the IDF.

■ Germany plans to resume cooperation with UNRWA, the foreign and development ministries said, after suspending funding following allegations of staff involvement in the October 7 attacks.

■ The IDF announced that it has mobilized two reserve brigades to return to southern Gaza, to "continue the mission of defense and attack in the Gaza Strip."

Sirens were activated in Kissufim, near the border with Gaza.

Knesset member Galit Distel Atbaryan, from Likud, criticized the protest held on Tuesday by families of hostages, during which they threw pieces of pita bread painted red at the Kirya military complex in Tel Aviv.

"The pitas that were thrown last night were not an act designed to shock the public because we had forgotten about the hostages," Distel Atbaryan wrote on X.

"It is a protest of chameleons that disguises itself as something else every time. A protest that is used and thrown away. Supposedly against corruption, supposedly against a coup, supposedly because of the hostages, but always, beneath the mask at Kaplan Street, there is one real reason: an all-out-war by an aggressive minority against the Jewish tradition of the majority of the people of Israel."