The revelation of the raid comes as Israel has waged an intensified 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 had raided a town in northern Lebanon, capturing a man they said was a high-ranking Hezbollah operative.

The army identified the captured man as Ali Soleiman al-Assi, saying he lives in the Saida region of southern Syria. The man is said to have been under military surveillance for several months and was involved in Iranian initiatives targeting areas of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near the Syrian border.

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

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Lebanese border on Sunday, saying he was focused on trying to prevent Hezbollah from rearming through the “oxygen lifeline” of Iranian weapons transferred to Lebanon via 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 fires in northern Israel.

Israel’s strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,500 people in the past year. In Israel, 69 people were killed by Hezbollah projectiles.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued an offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, where the army said it was fighting Hamas fighters who had regrouped there.

A fire has hit Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, injuring 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 concluded a visit.

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

“Attacks against civilians, including aid workers, and what remains of civilian facilities and infrastructure in Gaza must stop. The entire Palestinian population in northern Gaza, especially children, is at imminent risk of death from disease, starvation and ongoing shelling,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement on Saturday.

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

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

The WHO and the UN children’s agency known as UNICEF, which jointly runs the polio vaccination campaign, expressed concern over the reported strike. Rosalia Bollen, spokeswoman for UNICEF, said the strike took place when a “humanitarian pause” agreed by Israel was in place to allow vaccinations.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said that “contrary to claims, an initial assessment determined that (the Israeli military) did not strike the area at the specified time.”

The conflicting accounts could not be resolved. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked hospitals in Gaza during the war, saying Hamas is using them for militant purposes, allegations denied by Palestinian health officials. Hamas fighters also operate in the north, fighting Israeli forces.

Northern Gaza has been encircled by Israeli forces and largely cut off for the past year. Israel has waged 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 on Saturday in parts of northern Gaza. It has been postponed since October 23 due to a lack of access, Israeli shelling and mass evacuation orders, and a lack of assurances for humanitarian breaks, a UN statement said.

The administration of the first dose was carried out in September in 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 the past few weeks, but about 15,000 children under the age of 10 remain in the northern towns, including Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, which are inaccessible. , according to the UN.

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

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

The campaign was launched after the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years was reported – a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in his leg. The World Health Organization said the presence of one case of paralysis indicates there could be hundreds of people infected but not showing symptoms.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when militants led by Hamas swept into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping another 250. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, who did not say how many were combatants, but say more than half were women and children.