Israel-Hamas War Day 250: What's happening in Gaza, Middle East?

Hezbollah fired the most rockets it has launched at Israel in a single day since cross-border hostilities broke out eight months ago, as part of its retaliation on Wednesday for an Israeli strike which killed a senior Hezbollah field commander.

More than 37,202 Palestinians have been killed and 84,932 have been injured in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry published a new report on Wednesday on the "Occupied Palestinian Territories," claiming that "Israeli authorities are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during military operations and attacks in the Gaza Strip since October 7," according to Ynet.

According to the commission, established in May 2021, Israel is also responsible for sexual violence allegedly committed by soldiers during the war.

The IDF confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that it had struck and killed senior Hezbollah commander Sami Taleb Abdullah.

The military had eliminated the Hezbollah leader in a strike on a Hezbollah command and control center in the area of Jouaiyya in southern Lebanon.

The strike killed at least four people, including the senior Hezbollah field commander, three security sources told Reuters.

The Hezbollah terrorist organization reported the death of Mohammed Hajazi from southern Lebanon, Ynet reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, Hajazi is the 343rd Hezbollah member killed since the terror organization began attacks on Israel in response to the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

American intelligence sources believe that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar thinks that the organization can survive Israel's attempt to destroy it and feels confident that he can approach negotiations from a place where he has the upper hand.

According to the sources, Hamas's goal is to survive - that would be a victory for the terrorist organization.

Sinwar apparently believes that Hamas can hold out while Israel's international standing deteriorates as the war in Gaza continues. A senior Biden administration official said this openly: "He believes he is winning."

Both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, a UN inquiry claimed on Wednesday, saying that Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses.

The findings were from two parallel reports, one focusing on the October 7 Hamas attacks and another on Israel's military response, published by the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI,) which has an unusually broad mandate to collect evidence and identify perpetrators of international crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel does not cooperate with the commission, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. The COI said Israel obstructed its work and prevented investigators from accessing both Israel and the West Bank.

A commercial ship was attacked in the Red Sea, approximately 125 kilometers southwest of Yemen's port city of Hodeidah, the British maritime security firm Ambrey reported on Wednesday.

The IDF continued to operate in the Rafah area, where it located and destroyed multiple booby-trapped buildings, killed several armed terrorists, and located and confiscated terrorist combat equipment, the IDF reported on Wednesday.

The IDF activity in the area was conducted with support from the air force, which struck armed Hamas terrorists and a combat equipment silo.

In total, IDF aircraft attacked and destroyed over 30 terror targets across the Gaza Strip throughout the night, including tunnel exists, military buildings, armed terrorists, rocket launchers, and more, the military added.

Fire was exchanged on Wednesday morning between IDF troops and Palestinian terrorists in the Zeitun neighborhood in the southern portion of Gaza City, Ynet reported, citing Palestinian reports.