The Hezbollah commanders killed in Israeli strikes

The Hezbollah commanders killed in Israeli strikes
This combination of file pictures created on September 26, 2024, shows Hezbollah commanders killed in Israeli strikes in recent months (CLOCKWISE) Ibrahim Mohammed Kobeissi, Ibrahim Aqil, Fuad Shukr, Mohammed Naameh Nasser, Wissam Tawil and Sami Abdallah on unspecified dates and in unknown locations.(AFP)
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The Hezbollah commanders killed in Israeli strikes

The Hezbollah commanders killed in Israeli strikes
  • Here is what we know about the slain commanders

Beirut: Israel has killed several top Hezbollah commanders in a series of targeted strikes on the Iran-backed movement’s stronghold in Beirut.
Here is what we know about the slain commanders.
A strike on July 30 killed Fuad Shukr, the group’s top military commander and one of Israel’s most high-profile targets.
Shukr, who was in his early 60s, played a key role in cross-border clashes with Israeli forces, according to a source close to Hezbollah.
The two sides have traded near-daily fire across the frontier since Hezbollah ally Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.
Shukr helped found Hezbollah during Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war and became a key adviser to its chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
Shukr was Hezbollah’s most senior military commander, and Nasrallah said he had been in daily contact with him since October.
Israel blamed Shukr for a rocket attack in July on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children in a Druze Arab town. Hezbollah has denied responsibility.
In 2017, the US Treasury offered a $5 million reward for information on Shukr, saying he had “a central role” in the deadly 1983 bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.
A strike on September 20 killed Ibrahim Aqil, head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, along with 15 other commanders.
According to Lebanese officials, the attack killed a total of 55 people, many of them civilians.
A source close to Hezbollah described Aqil as the second-in-command in the group’s forces after Shukr.
The Radwan Force is Hezbollah’s most formidable offensive unit and its fighters are trained in cross-border infiltration, a source close to the group told AFP.
The United States said Aqil was a member of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, the movement’s highest military body.
The US Treasury said he was a “principal member” of the Islamic Jihad Organization — a Hezbollah-linked group behind the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people and an attack on US Marine Corps in the Lebanese capital the same year that killed 241 American soldiers.
On September 25, a strike killed Ibrahim Mohammed Kobeissi, who commanded several military units including a guided missiles unit.
“Kobeissi was an important source of knowledge in the field of missiles and had close ties with senior Hezbollah military leaders,” the Israeli military said.
Kobeissi joined Hezbollah in 1982 and rose through the ranks of the group’s forces.
One of the units he led was tasked with manning operations in part of the south of Lebanon, which borders Israel.
A strike on September 26 killed Mohammed Srur, the head of Hezbollah’s drone unit since 2020.
Srur studied mathematics and was among a number of top advisers sent by Hezbollah to Yemen to train the country’s Houthi rebels, who are also backed by Iran, a source close to Hezbollah said.
He had also played a key role in Hezbollah’s intervention since 2013 in Syria’s civil war in support of President Bashar Assad’s government.
Hezbollah will hold a funeral ceremony for Srur on Friday.
Other commanders killed in recent strikes include Wissam Tawil and Mohammed Naameh Nasser.


Iran treads carefully, backing Hezbollah while avoiding war

Iran treads carefully, backing Hezbollah while avoiding war
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Iran treads carefully, backing Hezbollah while avoiding war

Iran treads carefully, backing Hezbollah while avoiding war
  • With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions
TEHRAN: As violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, Iran is walking a tightrope by supporting Hezbollah without being dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands.
With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions.
Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, has intensified, especially after last week’s sabotage on Hezbollah’s communications that killed 39 people.
Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon followed, killing hundreds. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket barrages.
Despite the surge in hostilities, Iran appears determined to avoid direct military confrontation.
“Iran is not going to be pulled into war,” said Hamid Gholamzadeh, an Iran-based political expert.
Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group said Iran’s strategy was to project power, without directly engaging, especially as escalation could benefit Israel and impact the US election.
“Iran does not want to play into its arch-enemy’s hands,” said Vaez, noting Iran’s priority was securing sanctions relief and some economic stability.
Even during its first-ever direct attack on Israel in April — retaliation for an air strike Tehran’s embassy annex in Damascus — most missiles were intercepted by Israel’s defenses or allied forces.


In New York, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused Israel of warmongering while positioning the Islamic republic as restrained.
He suggested Iran had held back retaliation after the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, fearing it could derail US efforts for a Gaza ceasefire.
“We tried to not respond. They kept telling us we were within reach of peace, perhaps in a week or so,” he said.
“But we never reached that elusive peace. Every day Israel is committing more atrocities.”
This measured approach echoes Iran’s response earlier this year during heightened tensions with Israel. Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones after the Damascus strike, but most were intercepted.
Analysts say Iran is flexing its muscles amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, without provoking a US response.
Iran continues to face Western sanctions, especially since the United States, under then-president Donald Trump, withdrew from a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers in 2018.
European nations have also slapped sanctions on Iran, accusing it of supplying ballistic missiles to Russia for the Ukraine war.
Iran denied the accusations, with Pezeshkian saying in New York that Iran was “willing to sit down with the Europeans and the Americans to have a dialogue and negotiations.”
Vaez said any Iranian escalation could strengthen Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and even possibly help Trump return to power.
This “would be highly detrimental for Iranian interests,” he said.
Despite its restraint, Iran continues to back Hezbollah. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Tehran would “not remain indifferent” to Israeli attacks.
Iran also urged the UN Security Council to take immediate action, warning of “dangerous consequences” for Israel.
Israel has targeted senior Hezbollah commanders since the Gaza war began.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei this week lamented the loss of Hezbollah’s fighters but said it would not bring the group “to its knees.”
Afifeh Abedi, a political researcher, said Iran was evaluating its support for Hezbollah, but noted the group’s “signficant human resources.”
Gholamzadeh added that Hezbollah’s resources ensure it will not be easily defeated.
“Hezbollah needs to be supported, but this support does not mean that they might be defeated if there is no support,” he said.
Vaez said last week’s attack on Hezbollah’s communications may have weakened the group, but it would not be completely “paralyzed even if the first two tiers of its leadership were... eliminated.”
This vulnerability, he said, could be one of the reasons for Iran and Hezbollah’s “reluctance to enter a full-fledged war.”

Iraqi PM decries ‘powerless’ UN Security Council’s inability to curb Israel’s wars on Palestine and Lebanon

Iraqi PM decries ‘powerless’ UN Security Council’s inability to curb Israel’s wars on Palestine and Lebanon
Updated 7 min 19 sec ago
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Iraqi PM decries ‘powerless’ UN Security Council’s inability to curb Israel’s wars on Palestine and Lebanon

Iraqi PM decries ‘powerless’ UN Security Council’s inability to curb Israel’s wars on Palestine and Lebanon
  • Tel Aviv pushing world to war, says Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani
  • Greater collective effort from the international community needed

Washington: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani has blasted Israel as an “occupation entity” that routinely violates international laws as it wages “brutal” war on Gaza and Lebanon, and urged the international community to act against Tel Aviv.

Speaking at the 79th UN General Assembly meeting on Thursday, Al-Sudani said conflict in the Middle East has intensified as a result of Israel’s unfettered actions.

Israel’s war on Gaza has resulted in the killing of 41,000 people mainly women and children. And its attacks in Lebanon have killed hundreds and injured thousands, said Al-Sudani.

He expressed “disappointment” in the UN and Security Council for not deterring Israel’s “aggression” against the people of Palestine and Lebanon.

Al-Sudani said the UN faces a critical test of its ability to ensure “international security, stability and human rights.”

“Today we are witnessing the UN charter and international laws being violated and the right of self-determination is ignored,” he said.

“The world is being pushed toward full-scale confrontation and conflict while the Security Council is powerless and without a role.”

He said that while there have been commendable individual efforts to resolve conflicts in the Middle East, a greater collective effort from the international community was needed.

“In occupied Palestine, we are witnessing a people who are being attacked by an occupying military force displacing millions without being deterred and killing thousands of people.”

Al-Sudani added that Israeli officials were acting with impunity. “Public statements of mass-starving of people and even using nuclear weapons against them by senior officials of the occupation entity go on without any measures to deter them.”

He said the Palestinian people should be protected from the Israeli military occupation. However, Israel’s actions have rendered international law merely “ink on paper.”

On Lebanon, Al-Sudani said Iraq would support its neighbor, and continue to send medical and other aid to the country.

“Iraq today and its government and its people, under the directive of the supreme religious authorities stands with Lebanon and its brotherly people as

it faces a new page of brutal aggression that seeks to plunge the region into a brutal conflict which is something we have warned against,” he said.

On domestic issues, Al-Sudani said his government was working to rebuild the economy and improve public services.

The ultimate aim was to transform Iraq into a regional trade hub between the Middle East and Europe.


Lebanese FM calls for urgent international help amid Israeli attacks

Lebanese FM calls for urgent international help amid Israeli attacks
Updated 35 min 53 sec ago
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Lebanese FM calls for urgent international help amid Israeli attacks

Lebanese FM calls for urgent international help amid Israeli attacks
  • Crisis threatens international peace, security, Abdallah Bou Habib tells UN General Assembly
  • ‘Has Israel not had enough of the endless war since 1948? When will it be time for Israel to give a real opportunity for peace?’

NEW YORK CITY: Lebanon’s foreign minister on Thursday stressed the urgent need for international intervention to address the crisis in his country, which has seen Israeli attacks kill 700 citizens since Monday.

“Lebanon is currently enduring a crisis which is threatening its very existence,” Abdallah Bou Habib told the UN General Assembly.

The crisis “will transform into a black hole that will engulf regional (and) international peace and security” if the world continues to remain “immobile,” he said.

Bou Habib welcomed the joint declaration by the US and France on Wednesday for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, and demanded that all possible measures be adopted for it to be implemented.

He said what Lebanon is experiencing is “a consequence of the absence of a lasting (and) sustainable solution,” and “not the cause of an absence of a sustainable solution. The cause is the occupation.”

Despite the UN’s inability to protect Lebanon from Israeli aggression, Bou Habib said his country remains committed to the organization’s role as a “frontline of defense.”

Lebanon has repeatedly made efforts for peace, he added, citing the 2022 maritime demarcation deal and the country’s proposed framework for peace along its border with Israel.

However, “Israel has continuously eluded the issue or disregarded the matter,” which is why “we’re seeking refuge in the decisions under international law,” he said, reiterating Lebanon’s call for a “ceasefire on all fronts.”

Bou Habib also asked for international support in “reinforcing the deployment of the Lebanese army south of the Litani River,” and delivering equipment needed to increase troop numbers in the area.

He emphasized Lebanon’s commitment to peace and security, saying despite its economic crisis, the government has decided to send 100,000 additional soldiers to the south of the country.

He expressed gratitude for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which has “significantly contributed to stability and peace in the region” since its inception.

“Has Israel not had enough of the endless war since 1948? When will it be time for Israel to give a real opportunity for peace?” Bou Habib asked.

He said Lebanon and other Arab countries have “clearly, without any ambiguity, categorically embraced peace” through the Arab Peace Initiative in 2002, and it is now “incumbent upon Israel” to choose peace and break the cycle of violence in the region.


Netanyahu vows to use ‘full force’ against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a ceasefire

Netanyahu vows to use ‘full force’ against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a ceasefire
Updated 27 September 2024
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Netanyahu vows to use ‘full force’ against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a ceasefire

Netanyahu vows to use ‘full force’ against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a ceasefire
  • Israel said Wednesday its air force had struck some 280 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon
  • Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week as Israel dramatically escalated strikes

NEW YORK: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday vowed to carry out “full force” strikes against Hezbollah until it ceases firing rockets across the border, dimming hopes for a ceasefire proposal put forth by US and European officials.
Israel carried out a new strike in the Lebanese capital, which it said killed a senior Hezbollah commander, and the militant group launched dozens of rockets into Israel. Tens of thousands of Israeli and Lebanese people living near their countries’ border have been displaced by the fighting.
Netanyahu spoke as he landed in New York to attend the annual UN General Assembly meeting, where US and European officials were putting heavy pressure on both sides of the conflict to accept a proposed 21-day halt in the fighting to give time for diplomacy and avert all-out war.
Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week as Israel dramatically escalated strikes, saying it is targeting Hezbollah’s military capacities. Israeli leaders say they are determined to stop the group’s cross-border attacks, which began after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war in Gaza.
Israel’s “policy is clear,” Netanyahu said. “We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. And we will not stop until we reach all our goals, chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes.”
Just before his comments, the Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah drone commander, Mohammed Hussein Surour, in an airstrike in the suburbs of Beirut. Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the claim. The Health Ministry said two people were killed and 15 wounded in the strike.
The strike gutted an apartment in a residential building in Dahiyeh, the mainly Shiite suburb where Hezbollah has a strong presence, according to Associated Press photos of the scene.
Over the past week, Israel has carried out several strikes in Beirut targeting senior Hezbollah commanders. One strike in eastern Lebanon on Thursday killed 20 people, most of them Syrian migrants, according to Lebanese health officials.
Israel hit 75 sites early Thursday across southern and eastern Lebanon and launched a new wave of strikes in the evening, the military said. Throughout the day, Hezbollah fired some 175 projectiles into Israel, the Israeli military said. Most were intercepted or fell in open areas, sparking some wildfires, though one rocket hit a street in a town near the northern city of Safed.
Israel has talked of a possible ground invasion into Lebanon to drive Hezbollah — an Iranian-backed Shiite group that is the strongest armed force in Lebanon — away from the border. It has moved thousands of troops to the north in preparation. Some 100,000 Lebanese have fled their homes in the past week, streaming into Beirut and points further north.
In Israel, military vehicles transported tanks and armored vehicles toward the country’s northern border with Lebanon a day after commanders issued a call-up of reservists. Several tanks arrived in Kiryat Shmona, a hard-hit town just several miles from the border.
The escalation has raised fears of a repeat – or worse – of the 2006 war between the two sides that wreaked destruction across southern Lebanon and other parts of the country and saw heavy Hezbollah rocket fire on Israeli cities.

Opinion

This section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)

“Another full-scale war could be devastating for both Israel and Lebanon,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after talks with his British and Australian counterparts in London.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was at the UN meeting with Israeli officials over the truce proposal. Speaking in an interview with MSNBC, he said major powers, the Europeans and Arab nations were united, “everyone speaking with one clear voice about the need to get that ceasefire in the north.”
“I can’t speak for him,” Blinken said of Netanyahu.
Hezbollah has not yet responded to the proposal. Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed it, but his government has no sway over the group.
Netanyahu’s office downplayed the initiative, saying in a statement that it was only a proposal.
One of Netanyahu’s far-right governing partners threatened on Thursday to suspend cooperation with his government if it signs onto a temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah – and to quit completely if a permanent deal is reached. It was the latest sign of displeasure from Netanyahu’s allies toward international ceasefire efforts.
“If a temporary ceasefire becomes permanent, we will resign from the government,” said National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Jewish Power party.
If Ben-Gvir leaves the coalition, Netanyahu would lose his parliamentary majority and could see his government come toppling down, though opposition leaders have said they would offer support for a ceasefire deal.
Hezbollah has insisted it would halt its strikes only if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel has battled Hamas for nearly a year. That appears out of reach despite months of negotiations led by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
One day after Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel, bringing Israeli counterfire and a cycle of reprisals that has gone on near daily since. Hezbollah says its barrages are a show of support for Palestinians and that it is targeting Israeli military facilities, though rockets have also hit civilian areas.
Before this week, the cross-border exchanges had killed about 600 people in Lebanon, mostly militants but including more than 100 civilians, and about four dozen people in Israel, roughly half of them soldiers and the rest civilians. The fighting also forced tens of thousands to flee homes on both sides of the border.
Israel says its escalated strikes across Lebanon the past week are targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and other military infrastructure. Since Monday, strikes have killed more than 690 people in Lebanon, around a quarter of them women and children, according to local health authorities.
The campaign opened with what is widely believed to be an Israeli attack on Sept. 18 and 19 detonating thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, killing at least 39 people and maiming thousands more, including civilians.
Hezbollah in turn has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel. Several people in Israel have been wounded. On Wednesday, the group fired on Tel Aviv for the first time with a longer-range missile that was intercepted.
Early Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a building housing Syrian workers and their families near the ancient city of Baalbek in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 19 Syrians and a Lebanese were killed, one of the deadliest single strikes in Israel’s intensified air campaign.
Hussein Salloum, a local official in Younine, said most of the dead were women and children. The state news agency had initially reported that 23 people were dead.
Lebanon, with a population of around 6 million, hosts nearly 780,000 registered Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands who are unregistered — the world’s highest refugee population per capita.


Blinken tells Israel escalation will make civilian return more difficult

Blinken tells Israel escalation will make civilian return more difficult
Updated 27 September 2024
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Blinken tells Israel escalation will make civilian return more difficult

Blinken tells Israel escalation will make civilian return more difficult
  • Despite Israel’s stance, the US and France sought to keep prospects alive for an immediate 21-day truce they proposed on Wednesday
  • Washington has faced mounting global and domestic criticism over its backing of Israel amid the escalation of conflict in Lebanon

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israel on Thursday that further escalation to the conflict involving Lebanon will only make it harder for civilians to return home on both sides of the border, the State Department said.
Israel rejected global calls on Thursday for a ceasefire with the Hezbollah movement, defying its biggest ally in Washington and pressing ahead with strikes that have killed hundreds in Lebanon and heightened fears of an all-out regional war.
Despite Israel’s stance, the US and France sought to keep prospects alive for an immediate 21-day truce they proposed on Wednesday, and said negotiations continued, including on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York.
“The Secretary discussed the importance of reaching an agreement on the 21 day ceasefire across the Israel-Lebanon border,” the State Department said in a statement referring to talks between Blinken and Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer.
“He underscored that further escalation of the conflict will only make that objective (of civilian return) more difficult.”
The State Department added that Blinken also discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and steps that Israel needs to take to improve delivery of humanitarian assistance in the enclave where nearly the entire 2.3 million population is displaced and a hunger crisis exists.
US President Joe Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire proposal for Gaza on May 31 but the deal has run into obstacles, mostly over Israeli demands to maintain presence in the Philadelphi corridor on Gaza’s border with Egypt and specifics about exchanges of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Washington has faced mounting global and domestic criticism over its backing of Israel amid the escalation of conflict in Lebanon, where Israeli strikes have killed hundreds in recent days.
Critics say Washington has not leveraged its assistance to pressure Israel into accepting ceasefire calls. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
The latest bloodshed in the decades old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subequent military assault on Gaza has killed over 41,000, according to Palestinian health authorities.