Voting in Haryana has concluded, with a turnout of 65 percent. Meanwhile, tensions continue to escalate in the Middle East. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned in a Friday sermon that “Israel will not last long” and emphasized that “Iran will not back down.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been conducting heavy bombardments in southern Lebanon for nearly three weeks, resulting in numerous casualties and displacing over 1.2 million people.

In the latest developments, Saeed Atallah, a leader of Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam brigades, was reportedly killed alongside three family members in an Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli, northern Lebanon. Hamas-affiliated media reported this, but the Israeli army has not yet commented on the incident.

The IDF announced air strikes targeting a Hezbollah headquarters located within a mosque in southern Lebanon, from where the group had been operating. The Israeli army tweeted that these targeted attacks were carried out overnight with intelligence support from Amman and the Northern Command.

The fate of Hashem Safieddine, who is seen as a potential successor to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and was reportedly targeted in an Israeli strike on Thursday night, remains uncertain. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah has commented on this. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz shared a photo of Safieddine and Nasrallah on social media, urging Khamenei to “take your proxies and leave Lebanon.”