Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said Friday it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, as the region reckons with the killing of top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza.Hamas acknowledged Sinwar’s death and described him as a martyr. Sinwar was a chief architect of the attack on southern Israel that precipitated the latest escalating conflicts in the Middle East. Many, from the governments of Israeli allies to exhausted residents of Gaza, expressed hope that Sinwar’s death would pave the way for an end to the war, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech announcing Sinwar’s death that “Our war is not yet ended.” On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The…

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said Friday it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, as the region continued to reckon with Israel’s claim that top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in a battle...

Israel says the top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza. Foreign Minister Katz called Sinwar’s killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army.” Sinwar was a chief architect of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that precipitated the latest escalating conflicts in the Middle East. Earlier Thursday, Palestinian officials reported at least 28 people were dead, including four children, in an Israeli strike on a school being used as a shelter in Gaza on Thursday. Nearly 100 people were wounded in the strike in Jabaliya, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency unit in the north.Syria’s military said an Israeli strike early Thursday wounded two civilians and damaged a military post. Israel regularly targets military sites in Syria linked to Iran and to Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group and has escalated its campaign against Hezbollah in recent weeks, after a year of near-daily exchanges of cross-border fire. Lebanon says more than 2,400 people…