Israel kills Hezbollah’s seventh commander, Lebanon’s Hamas leader killed in airstrike

Palestinian militant group Hamas said its leader was killed in Lebanon in an Israeli airstrike on Monday.

Hamas said Fatah Sharif and his family were killed in an attack on Arbus refugee camp in the southern port city of Tire.

Israel has frequently targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs over the past week, where Hezbollah has a strong presence, including a major attack on Friday. Killing Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.

But on Monday, the apartment building was destroyed in the first Israeli airstrike on central Beirut in the nearly year-long conflict.

The incident comes after Israel attacked targets across Lebanon in the past few days, killing dozens of people. hezbollah It dealt a major blow to its chain of command, including the death of Nasrallah.

Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

The airstrikes hit a high-rise residential building in central Beirut, according to an Associated Press reporter who was at the scene. Video showed ambulances and crowds gathering near the building in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood with a busy boulevard lined with stores.

At least one person was killed and 16 injured in the airstrike, a Lebanese civil defense official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said the person killed was a member of al-Jamaa al-Islam, a Sunni political and armed organization affiliated with Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s Palestinian leftist faction said three of its members were killed in the airstrike. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a statement early Monday that a Lebanese military and security commander and a third member were killed in the attack.

Neither militant group plays a significant role in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

Earlier, Hezbollah admitted that Nabil Kaouk, vice-chairman of the Central Council, was killed on Saturday, making him the next president. Seventh Hezbollah official killed in Israeli airstrike In just over a week. They include the group’s founding members, who have evaded death and detention for decades.

Hezbollah also acknowledged that another senior commander, Ali Karaki, was killed in the attack that killed Nasrallah. Israel said at least 20 Hezbollah militants were killed, including the head of Nasrallah’s security forces.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Sunday’s airstrikes killed at least 105 people across the country. The ministry said at least 32 people were killed in two airstrikes near the southern city of Sidon, about 45 miles south of Beirut. Separately, an Israeli airstrike in the northern province of Baalbek-Hermel killed 21 people and injured at least 47 others.

In addition to the attack in Beirut, Lebanese media reported dozens of strikes in the central, eastern and western Bekaa, as well as in the south. Israel says it is targeting militants, but the airstrikes have hit buildings occupied by civilians and the death toll is expected to rise.

Video of the strike in Sidon seen by The Associated Press showed buildings shaking and then collapsing as neighbors filmed. One TV station posted photos and asked viewers to pray for families trapped under rubble after rescuers failed to arrive. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that at least 14 doctors were killed in the south over two days.

President Biden said Sunday that he would soon meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said he believed all-out war in the Middle East should be avoided. “I bet it is,” Biden told reporters at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware as he boarded Air Force One for Washington.

Biden says Nasrallah’s death is ‘a measure of justice’

On Saturday, Biden said: NasrallahHis death in an Israeli airstrike A “means of justice” for the many victims.

In a statement released by the White House, the president said, “Nasrallah and the terrorist organization Hezbollah he leads have committed hundreds of Americans, including thousands of Israelis and Lebanese civilians, during a four-decade reign of terror.” He is responsible for the murder of the man.”

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Sunday that Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon had “decimated” Hezbollah’s chain of command, but warned the group would work quickly to rebuild.

“I think people are safer without him walking around,” Kirby said of Nasrallah. “But they’re going to try to bounce back. We’ll be watching to see what they do to fill this leadership vacuum. It’s going to be tough. … Many of their chains of command is now extinct.”

Kirby sidestepped a question on CNN’s “State of the Union” about whether the Biden administration agrees with the way Israel is targeting Hezbollah leaders. The White House continues to urge Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a 21-day temporary ceasefire struck by the United States, France and other countries at last week’s United Nations General Assembly.

Meanwhile, the remains of Friday’s strike that killed Nasrallah were still smoldering. Smoke billowed above the rubble as people flocked to the site to see what was left of their homes, others to pay their respects, pray or simply witness the destruction.

In response to a dramatic escalation in Israeli attacks on Lebanon, Hezbollah significantly increased its rocket attacks last week, increasing from dozens to hundreds daily, according to the Israeli military. The attack left several people injured and other casualties, but most of the rockets and drones were intercepted by Israeli air defense systems or fell into open areas.

The military claims that the airstrikes have weakened Hezbollah’s capabilities and that the number of launches would have been higher had Hezbollah not been attacked.

Israel says it has attacked Houthi targets

Also on Sunday, the Israeli military announced that dozens of aircraft had struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to recent attacks. The military said it targeted power plants and port facilities in the city of Hodeidah.

The Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on Saturday, the day Netanyahu arrived. The Houthi media office said the Israeli military strikes hit the ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa, as well as two power plants in the city of Hodeidah, a stronghold of Iranian-backed rebels. The Houthi-run health ministry said four people were killed and 40 injured in the airstrike.

Nasruddin Ammar, deputy head of the Houthi media office, claimed that the Houthis had taken precautions ahead of the attack, including emptying oil stored at the port. In a post on X, he said the attack would not stop rebel attacks by sea or against Israel.

Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon have killed more than 1,030 people in less than two weeks, including 156 women and 87 children, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes. The government estimates that around 250,000 people are in evacuation centers, with three to four times that number staying with friends and relatives or camping on the streets.

Hezbollah is a Lebanese extremist organization and political party backed by Israel’s biggest regional rival, Iran, that fought a devastating month-long war with Israel that ended in a draw in 2006. Afterwards, it gained fame in the region.

Kaouk is a veteran member of Hezbollah dating back to the 1980s and served as Hezbollah’s military commander in southern Lebanon during the 2006 war with Israel. The United States announced sanctions against him in 2020.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles, and drones into northern Israel. October 7 Gaza attack by Hamas That’s where the war started. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies that consider themselves part of an Iranian-backed “axis of resistance” against Israel.

The conflict is moving steadily to the brink of full-scale war, raising fears of a region-wide conflagration.

Israel has said it is determined to return some 60,000 of its citizens to northern communities they fled about a year ago. Hezbollah has said it will stop firing rockets only if a ceasefire is reached in the Gaza Strip, but a ceasefire is unlikely despite months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas led by the US, Qatar and Egypt. I know that.

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