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Fear stalks northern Israel after strike kills Hamas deputy

Near Israel's tense northern border with Lebanon, residents fear the killing of the deputy leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas in Beirut could spark a war with their neighbour.

During nearly three months of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli army has also been exchanging cross-border fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is allied with Hamas.

While the violence had already dampened the mood in the coastal city of Nahariya, the anxiety level shot up with the death of Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri in a strike in a Beirut suburb on Tuesday.

An Israeli soldier walks along a street in Nahariya in northern Israel on January 3, 2024

Coches acribillados a balazos y perros callejeros en el cruce israelí de Gaza

Casi tres meses después del sangriento ataque de Hamas contra Israel, perros callejeros deambulan entre autos acribillados a balazos en el cerrado cruce de Erez con la Franja de Gaza.

Rodeado de altas vallas y con cámaras de seguridad en cada esquina, el cruce de Erez alguna vez estuvo bajo vigilancia constante por fuerzas de seguridad israelíes fuertemente armadas.

Pero el 7 de octubre, el único cruce que permitía a la gente viajar entre Israel y Gaza fue uno de las docenas de sitios que fueron atacados por militantes de Hamas.

Three months after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on southern Israel, the Erez border crossing through which people with permits could pass to and from Israel and Gaza is badly damaged and littered with bullet-riddled cars

以色列加沙过境点满是弹孔的汽车和流浪狗

哈马斯对以色列发动血腥袭击近三个月后,在该国与加沙地带之间的埃雷兹过境点,流浪狗在满是弹孔的汽车中游荡。

埃雷兹过境点周围环绕着高高的栅栏,每个转弯处都有安全摄像头,曾经受到全副武装的以色列安全部队的严密把守。

但 10 月 7 日,人们能够在以色列和加沙之间旅行的唯一过境点是遭到哈马斯武装分子袭击的数十个地点之一。

在法新社记者周三拍摄的罕见照片中,这场战斗的余波依然存在。

废弃停车场里的汽车布满弹孔,大部分停机坪都被撕毁。

一块标牌上用希伯来语、阿拉伯语和英语写着“欢迎来到埃雷兹过境点”,下面是一堆废墟。

流浪狗和鸟类在航站楼外的泥泞地上觅食,这里曾经熙熙攘攘地挤满了数千名经过以色列严格的背景调查获得工作许可后进入以色列的加沙人。

在埃雷兹因战争爆发而被关闭之前,持有医疗许可证的巴勒斯坦人、外交官和人道主义工作者也能通过。

过去,从加沙过境的人会接受全身扫描仪,他们的随身物品会在幕后接受搜查,最后检查他们的证件。

埃雷兹过境点毗邻一个军事基地,周三有人看到装甲车驶近该基地。

10月7日,以色列军方对该地区发动空袭,并表示“恐怖分子在埃雷兹过境点被挫败”。

Three months after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on southern Israel, the Erez border crossing through which people with permits could pass to and from Israel and Gaza is badly damaged and littered with bullet-riddled cars

Bullet-riddled cars, stray dogs at Israel's Gaza crossing

Nearly three months after Hamas's bloody attack on Israel, stray dogs roam amid bullet-riddled cars at the country's shuttered Erez crossing with the Gaza Strip.

Surrounded by high fences and with security cameras at every turn, the Erez crossing was once under constant guard by heavily-armed Israeli security forces.

But on October 7, the only crossing which enabled people to travel between Israel and Gaza was one of dozens of sites to come under attack by Hamas militants.

In rare images taken by AFP journalists on Wednesday, the fallout of that battle remains.

Three months after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on southern Israel, the Erez border crossing through which people with permits could pass to and from Israel and Gaza is badly damaged and littered with bullet-riddled cars

Argentina arrests foreigners in suspected 'terrorist' plot

Argentina's government said Wednesday that three foreigners, citizens of Syria and Lebanon, had been arrested under suspicion of planning a "terrorist act", as the country hosts a major Jewish sporting event.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told the media that authorities had been on high alert as Buenos Aires hosts the Pan-American Maccabiah Games, bringing together some 4,000 athletes.

She said the country had received intelligence from the United States and Israel on the potential threat, and that the three suspects had booked a hotel near the Israeli embassy.

Bullrich said the country had received intelligence from the United States and Israel on the potential threat, and that the three suspects had booked a hotel near the Israeli embassy.

Tears, defiance in Palestinian village of slain Hamas deputy

Palestinian mourners broke into sobs as they huddled around defiant family members of slain Hamas deputy Saleh al-Aruri in his village in the occupied West Bank Wednesday, a day after his death in Lebanon.

Aruri, exiled from his village Arura since he was released from an Israeli jail in 2010, was killed in a drone strike on a southern Beirut suburb that Lebanese officials said was carried out by Israel.

Holding a photograph of her son framed in gold, Aisha al-Aruri, 81, said she struck a note of defiance when weeping village women informed her of the 57-year-old's death.

Aisha al-Aruri, the mother of slain Hamas deputy Saleh al-Aruri, was among the mourners in his home village

Iran blames Israel, US for deadly blasts near grave of Guards general Soleimani

Iran blamed Israel and the United States on Wednesday for twin bomb blasts that killed at least 95 people in the country's south, ripping through a crowd commemorating Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani four years after his death in a US strike.

The two explosions -- labelled a "terrorist attack" by state media and regional authorities -- came amid high Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a Hamas senior leader in Lebanon on Tuesday.

Video released by state-run Iran Press news agency on January 3, 2024 shows ambulances leaving the site where two explosions struck a crowd marking the anniversary of the 2020 killing of Guards general Qasem Soleimani

'No one knew': south Beirut stunned after strike kills Hamas deputy

A large hole is gaping in a three-storey building and debris litters the street amid charred cars in south Beirut where a strike blamed on Israel killed the deputy leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The day after loud blasts ripped through the district from the drone attack that killed Saleh al-Aruri, armed men of Hezbollah were standing guard in the mainly Shiite Muslim area that is their stronghold.

The Beirut building that was hit in Tuesday's strike

Gaza war tensions spike after deadly Iran blasts, Lebanon killing

Fears that Israel's war in Gaza could spiral across the Middle East mounted Wednesday after twin explosions ripped through an Iranian crowd, claiming at least 103 lives following a strike in Lebanon that killed Hamas's deputy leader.

More than 200 other people were wounded when the blasts about 15 minutes apart struck mourners commemorating slain Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his killing in a United States drone strike, Iran's state media reported.

Iranian emergency services arrive at the site in Kerman city where two explosions killed at least 103 people, according to state media

Who was Saleh al-Aruri, Hamas deputy killed in Lebanon?

Saleh al-Aruri, the senior Hamas official killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Lebanon, played a key role in building up the Palestinian group's military capabilities and its links with regional allies.

Aruri, 57, was one of the founders of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in the early 1990s.

More recently, he was the "channel or link" between the Hamas movement, Iran and Hezbollah, a Hamas source told AFP. He had regularly visited Iran.

Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri's mother Aisha clutches a photograph of of her slain son at the family home in Arura, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank