It comes as Israel’s war cabinet is still weighing its response to the attack, with Israel’s ambassador to the UN telling CNN that a response “will come soon.” 37 people were killed and 151 wounded in Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Thursday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have vowed to continue attacking Hezbollah targets in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon.
Axios, citing Israeli sources, reported that Safieddine was the target of the attack on Friday night. Hezbollah has not commented on these statements. It is not clear if he was murdered. Analysts say Safieddine, head of Hezbollah’s executive council, is the most likely candidate to replace Hezbollah’s late secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh last week.
Friday’s attacks were similar to the explosions that killed Nasrallah, with a series of loud explosions in quick succession shaking Beirut. Large plumes of red smoke were captured coming from the site of the airstrikes. Last week Israel reportedly used dozens of 600-kilogram bombs to destroy bunkers, leaving craters dozens of meters deep.
A source close to Hezbollah also told AFP that Israel carried out 11 consecutive attacks on the group’s southern stronghold in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh on Thursday night, in one of the most brutal attacks. since Israel intensified its airstrike campaign against Lebanon last week. The agency’s correspondents in Beirut and beyond heard loud explosions that set off car alarms and shook buildings. About an hour later, several explosions were heard in the southern suburbs after the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of residents of the Hadat area. “Israel has attacked the southern suburbs 11 times in a row,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Images released by AFP showed gigantic fireballs rising above the impact site, thick smoke billowing and flares flying. The official Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported that “more than 10 consecutive attacks have been recorded so far, one of the most powerful attacks against the southern suburbs of Beirut since the start of the Israeli war in Lebanon.” According to the Lebanese National Army, attacks also occurred in mountainous areas on the outskirts of Beirut.
Israel accused Hezbollah of firing around 230 projectiles from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Thursday. Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it carried out 32 different attacks during the day, including rocket attacks on Israeli settlements and military bases and attacks on Israeli soldiers conducting ground operations in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah was not the only Iran-backed group that said it attacked Israel on Thursday. In a separate incident, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for a drone attack on southern Israel. The Israeli military said it intercepted a drone over southern Israel without causing any casualties.
Meanwhile, the southern Beirut suburb gave its name to Israel’s notorious Dahiyeh doctrine, which is said to have originated during the 2006 Lebanon war. Late last year, professor emeritus of peace studies at the University Bradford’s Paul Rogers wrote a commentary in The Guardian about the strategy, highlighting Israel’s use of “disproportionate force” during the 2006 war with Lebanon. According to the professor, it was a deliberate use of “disproportionate force,” like destroying an entire village if the source of the rocket launch were considered. A graphic description of the outcome was that “about a thousand Lebanese civilians were killed, a third of them children.” “Cities and towns were reduced to rubble, bridges, sewage treatment plants, port facilities and power plants were disabled or destroyed,” Rogers wrote. The head of the Israeli military forces in Lebanon during the war and supervisor of doctrine was General Gadi Eizenkot. He became IDF chief of staff, retired in 2019, but returned in October as an adviser to Netanyahu’s war cabinet.
By the way, Joe Biden’s comment when asked about the airstrikes on Lebanon in recent days seems surprisingly cynical. “How sure are you that it won’t rain? Look, I don’t think there will be a full-scale war. I think we can avoid it. But there’s still a lot to do, a lot to do.” said the tenant of the White House. When asked why he had not spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days, even though he had promised to do so on Sunday, he responded: “Because no action is being taken at the moment.” Asked if he was worried that an Israeli attack on Iran’s oil facilities would cause oil prices to rise, he responded: “If there’s a hurricane, prices will go up. I don’t know who knows.”
Israel on Thursday ordered the evacuation of more villages in southern Lebanon, signaling an expansion of its ground invasion. More than 1,000 people in Lebanon have been killed and nearly a million residents have been displaced since Israel entered into a brutal confrontation with Hezbollah. Shelters were overcrowded beyond capacity, CNN notes.
Meanwhile
An Israeli airstrike on a cafe in the occupied West Bank killed 18 people on Friday night. Al-Jazeera reported that a mother and her two children were among the dead. Local hospitals are reported to be overwhelmed by victims of the attack, which destroyed an entire building. According to the television channel, it is the deadliest attack in the West Bank in the last 24 years. Citing Palestinian media and a Red Crescent paramedic, Israeli newspaper Haaretz previously reported that many people were still trapped under the rubble. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday afternoon that 99 Palestinians had been killed and 169 wounded in the previous 24 hours.
Facts
Israel has a long history of killing its enemies, often resulting in civilian casualties. In recent weeks and months, the Israeli military and intelligence services have killed around 20 senior Hezbollah figures. Among them is Ibrahim Aqeel, who is believed to have been killed in an airstrike in Beirut in September. He was one of the last surviving founders of Hezbollah’s military wing, and survived more than 40 years of conflict with Israel. Fuad Shukur, whom Israel considered responsible for controlling most of Hezbollah’s advanced weapons, including precision-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, was killed in an attack in Beirut in July. Nabil Kaouk, who held several military command positions and had recently begun traveling to Iran, was killed in an attack earlier this week. Along with Nasrallah, Ali Karaki, who was in charge of military operations along the disputed border with Israel, was killed, as was Ibrahim Jazini, who was in charge of Hezbollah’s internal security.
