Air France, Lufthansa, British Airways cancel all flights to Israel
Three major European airlines have canceled all flights to Israel hours after a deadly attack on Hezbollah left at least nine people dead and over 2,700 people injured.
Air France has canceled flights to Tel Aviv for Sept. 18 and 19, according to the flight status board on their website. Lufthansa has canceled flights to Israel through Sept. 19 and British Airways has canceled flights to Israel through Sept. 27.
-ABC News' Sam Sweeney
Sep 17, 2024, 8:14 AM EDT
Netanyahu undermining security with 'petty politics,' political rival alleges
Benny Gantz -- the leader of the centrist National Unity coalition -- on Tuesday accused rival Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of endangering Israeli security "in the most tangible way that I can remember being done by a prime minister during a war, and in general."
In a public statement -- later also published on his X page -- Gantz accused the prime minister of "security recklessness" over reports that Netanyahu is preparing to replace Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who is a major critic of the prime minister's approach to cease-fire negotiations in Gaza.
Gantz said the alleged political maneuvering is particularly dangerous ahead of a potential expansion of the conflict in the north of the country, where the Israel Defense Forces has been engaged in cross-border fighting with the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia since Oct. 8.
"Human lives and the future of the nation are at stake," Gantz said, describing the situation as the "dictionary definition of petty politics, at the expense of national security."
-ABC News' Jordana Miller
Sep 17, 2024, 7:13 AM EDT
11,000 students killed in Gaza, education ministry says
The Palestinian Ministry of Education said Tuesday that some 11,000 students have been killed and more than 17,000 others have been injured in the Gaza Strip since Israel's campaign there started on Oct. 7.
The ministry also said 500 schools and universities have been bombed across the territory in almost one year of war.
-ABC News' Samy Zyara, Nasser Atta and Joe Simonetti
Sep 17, 2024, 4:24 AM EDT
Islamic Jihad rocket commander 'eliminated' in Gaza, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said it "eliminated" the head of the Islamic Jihad militia group's southern rocket and missile unit in a Monday airstrike on a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza.
Ahmed Aish Salame al-Hashash was the commander of the Islamic Jihad's rocket forces in the southern Rafah area, the IDF said in a statement. He was "an important source of knowledge of rocket fire within the Islamic Jihad terror organization in Gaza," the IDF added.
Palestinians, seen through a torn tent, ride a motorized vehicle past the rubble, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, September 16, 2024.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Al-Hashash was killed while "operating inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Younis," the IDF said, referring to one of the areas designated by the Israeli military as safer locations for civilians amid the devastating campaign in Gaza.
"Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence," the IDF said.
