Israel’s prime minister appoints a former rival to strengthen his hold on office
Saar is a veteran politician who himself has had a strained relationship with the prime minister
Updated 30 September 2024
AP
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Sunday a former rival, Gideon Saar, as a member of his Cabinet, expanding his coalition and strengthening his hold on office.
Under their agreement, Netanyahu said Saar would serve as a minister without portfolio and serve in the Security Cabinet, the body that oversees the management of the ongoing war against Israel’s enemies across the Middle East.
Saar, 57, had hoped to replace Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, another rival of Netanyahu’s. But a deal to become defense minister fell through several weeks ago after fighting intensified with Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border, leaving the popular Gallant in office for the time being.
Saar is a veteran politician who himself has had a strained relationship with the prime minister. He was once a rising star in Netanyahu’s Likud party, but angrily left it four years ago after accusing the prime minister of turning it into a “cult of personality” as he battled corruption charges.
Since then, however, Saar has struggled as leader of a small conservative party, enjoying little support with the broader public. While he and Netanyahu have little love for one another, they share a hard-line ideology toward Israel’s Arab adversaries.
In recent months, Saar has said Israel must fight until Hamas is destroyed. He also has called for tougher action against Hezbollah’s sponsor, Iran. And like Netanyahu, he strongly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In a joint statement, they said they had put their differences aside for the good of the nation.
Netanyahu’s decision appears to have been driven in part by domestic politics. He faces a number of key political battles in the coming weeks — including the contentious issue of drafting ultra-Orthodox men into the army, passing a budget and taking the stand in his long-running corruption trial. Saar is expected to help Netanyahu on many of these issues.
His appointment also will likely scale back the influence of ultranationalist members of his coalition. Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, are religious ideologues who have threated to bring down the government if Netanyahu makes too many concessions in any ceasefire deal. Ben-Gvir has also drawn international criticism for provocative visits to a contested Jerusalem holy site.
Sunday’s agreement gives Saar, who hopes to be prime minister one day, an opportunity to revive his political career, while expanding Netanyahu’s majority coalition to 68 seats in the 120-seat parliament.
Israel targets apartment belonging to Islamic Group member, first strike on Beirut outside Dahieh
Updated 4 min 54 sec ago
Agencies
BEIRUT: Witnesses on Monday reported the first Israeli airstrike in central Beirut in nearly a year of conflict, hours after Israel struck targets across Lebanon and killed dozens of people as Hezbollah sustained a string of deadly blows to its command structure, including the killing of its overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The airstrike hit an upper floor of a multi-story residential building in the Kola district of Beirut, witnesses said. Videos showed ambulances and a crowd gathered under the building, where the strike appeared to have targeted an apartment.
In the past week, Israel has frequently targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has a strong presence — including a major strike on Friday that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah — but had not hit locations near the city center. The area where the strike took place is a primary Sunni district with a busy thoroughfare lined with shops and residentials buildings.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.
Earlier, Hezbollah confirmed that Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of the militant group’s Central Council, was killed Saturday, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader slain in Israeli strikes in a little over a week. They include founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades.
Hezbollah also confirmed that Ali Karaki, another senior commander, died in a airstrike Friday strike that killed Nasrallah. Israel says at least 20 other Hezbollah militants were killed, including one in charge of Nasrallah’s security detail.
Earlier, the Lebanese health ministry documented at least 105 killed around the country in airstrikes Sunday. Two strikes near the southern city of Sidon, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of Beirut, killed at least 32 people, the Lebanese health ministry said. Separately, Israeli strikes in the northern province of Baalbek Hermel killed 21 people and injured at least 47. There were other strikes.
The Israeli military previously said it also carried out another targeted strike on Beirut, but did not immediately provide details.
Lebanese media reported dozens of strikes in the central, eastern and western Bekaa and in the south, besides strikes on Beirut. The strikes have targeted buildings where civilians were living and the death toll was expected to rise.
In a video of a strike in Sidon, verified by The Associated Press, a building swayed before collapsing as neighbors filmed. One TV station called on viewers to pray for a family caught under the rubble, posting their pictures, as rescuers failed to reach them. The Lebanese health ministry reported at least 14 medics were killed over two days in the south.
President Joe Biden said Sunday he would speak soon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and believes that an all-out war in the Middle East must be avoided.
“It has to be,” Biden told reporters at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware as he boarded Air Force One for Washington, though he didn’t say when he would call the Israeli leader.
Meanwhile, wreckage from the strike on Friday that killed Nasrallah was still smoldering. AP journalists saw smoke over the rubble as people flocked to the site, some to check on what was left of their homes and others to pay respects, pray or simply to see the destruction.
In response to the dramatic escalation in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Hezbollah significantly increased its attacks in the past week, from several dozen to several hundred daily, the Israeli military said. The attacks injured several people and caused damage, but most of the rockets and drones were intercepted by Israel’s air defense systems or fell in open areas.
The army says its strikes have degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities and the number of launches would be much higher if Hezbollah had not been hit.
’We will reach everyone’: how Israel hunted Nasrallah
Analysts said the operation reflected huge strides by Israel’s Unit 8200 signals intelligence group in penetrating Hezbollah’s communications devices
The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel spent months planning how to use “a series of timed explosions” in the bunker beneath residential buildings where Nasrallah would be, “with each blast paving the way for the next one”
Updated 30 September 2024
AFP
JERUSALEM: Israel’s killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike on Friday was a feat of spycraft capping days of operations highlighting its deep infiltration of the Iran-backed group.
Here’s what we know about how Israel marshalled its intelligence resources to pull off the attack:
Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel the day after its ally Hamas staged the brutal October 7 attack on southern Israel, triggering the ongoing war in Gaza.
Israel’s relatively low-level campaign against Hezbollah escalated dramatically on September 17 with sabotage attacks on pagers used by Hezbollah, followed the next day by explosions targeting the group’s two-way radios.
Exploding devices, which Israel has not claimed, killed at least 39 people, wounded almost 3,000 and “threw Hezbollah’s communications back to the stone-age,” wrote Robert Satloff of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Analysts said the operation reflected huge strides by Israel’s Unit 8200 signals intelligence group in penetrating Hezbollah’s communications devices.
In February Nasrallah himself warned that “the cell phone that you hold in your hand is a spying device,” prompting use of the pagers that were later weaponized.
Yet military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told journalists the intelligence-gathering that led to Friday’s Beirut strike on Nasrallah went back years.
“We had used the intelligence we’ve been working for years to gather, and we had real-time information, and we carried out this strike,” he said.
Retired Col. Miri Eisen, a senior fellow at Israel’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University, also said the strike was the product of extensive work.
“Israel’s capabilities when it comes to Hezbollah show the depth of the intelligence infiltration into Hezbollah lines,” she said, adding these were “not things that were invented in the last 11 months” after Hezbollah began striking the north.
Israeli officials have said Nasrallah and other Hezbollah leaders gathered on Friday for a meeting at the group’s “central headquarters” in its main stronghold, located in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Warplanes had been pounding the area extensively as Israel ramped up operations against Hezbollah.
A military video showed F15 jets taking off from Hatzerim Airbase on Friday to carry out the operation.
Just before 6:30 p.m. (1530 GMT) the sound of powerful explosions was heard across the Lebanese capital.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel spent months planning how to use “a series of timed explosions” in the bunker beneath residential buildings where Nasrallah would be, “with each blast paving the way for the next one.”
But the paper also cited Israeli officials as saying the strike’s timing “was opportunistic, coming after Israeli intelligence learned about the meeting hours before it occurred.”
It coincided with the UN General Assembly, meaning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was out of the country at the time.
His office would later publish a photograph it said showed him approving the strike, which The Times of Israel said was apparently taken “at his hotel in New York.”
Israel has not specified the weaponry used in the strike.
However, the New York Times said analysis of a military video indicates the aircraft used had been “fitted with at least 15 2,000-pound bombs.”
Senior officials told the paper that “more than 80 bombs were dropped over a period of several minutes to kill” Nasrallah. The Wall Street Journal said Israel hit the bunker with “80 tons of bombs.”
The air strikes left craters up to five meters (16 feet) across, AFP photographers said.
Lebanon’s health ministry gave a preliminary toll of six dead and 91 wounded in the raid.
Middle East expert James Dorsey said there was no question that the strike represented a “very sophisticated” intelligence coup.
“It demonstrates not only significant technological capacity but just how deeply Israel has penetrated Hezbollah,” he said.
Heiko Wimmen of International Crisis Group said the long-term effects on Hezbollah’s operations were unclear.
“While Hezbollah is too well-institutionalized to collapse by decapitation, the staggering loss of its human resources will inevitably have a degrading effect sooner rather than later,” said Wimmen, the think tank’s project director for Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
“Their extensive intelligence infiltration also makes it doubtful that they can launch a strategic response or keep up the rocket attacks on northern Israel for much longer.”
For now, Israeli officials are celebrating Nasrallah’s death while weighing whether to press on with ground operations intended to tackle the threat posed by Hezbollah along the northern border.
The military on Saturday distributed a transcript quoting the commander of the squadron that struck Nasrallah as saying “We will reach everyone, everywhere.”
Frankly Speaking: Is a new civil war inevitable in Lebanon?
Far from deepening sectarianism, Israeli strikes are creating solidarity between Lebanon’s factions, says health minister
Dr. Firass Abiad accuses Israel of refusing to negotiate an end to conflict and of committing war crimes by killing health personnel
Updated 29 September 2024
Arab News
DUBAI: Hassan Nasrallah, the longstanding Hezbollah leader who was killed in an Israeli strike on his Beirut stronghold over the weekend, was the author of deep divisions in Lebanon, which have long threatened to drag the nation back into the mire of civil war.
Since the latest hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah suddenly escalated in mid-September, reports have circulated on social media about flare-ups in sectarian tensions in different parts of Lebanon as a result of mass displacement of people from the south.
Appearing on the Arab News current affairs program “Frankly Speaking,” Firass Abiad, Lebanon’s minister of public health, insisted the conflict had not created a sectarian split in society, as even many Shiites, who form Hezbollah’s support base, now appear to oppose the militia’s actions.
“There’s clearly a lot of people in Lebanon who oppose the politics and what Hezbollah is doing. There’s no denying that, if you talk to people,” Abiad told “Frankly Speaking” host Katie Jensen.
“This is across the board. This is not sectarian, (it’s) among all sects, including Shittes, you have people who oppose Hezbollah.”
Dr. Firass Abiad, Lebanon’s minister of public health, insisted the conflict had not created a sectarian split in society, even as many Shiites, who form Hezbollah’s support base, appear to oppose the militia’s actions. (AN photo)
At the same time, however, Abiad said Israel’s strikes on Lebanon had created a spirit of solidarity across Lebanon’s multiconfessional society, similar to the sympathy generated across the Arab world for the Palestinians — even among those who oppose Hamas — in the wake of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
“What Israel is doing by these indiscriminate attacks, when they attack a Christian or even when they are attacking Shiite areas … this will only increase the feeling of solidarity with the community where Hezbollah is based,” he said.
“We’ve seen this also with Gaza. If you look at the Arab world, the support for Hamas is not high. But when people see the atrocities, the carnage that Israel is perpetrating in Gaza, I think that, unanimously, a lot of people have a lot of sympathy with the people of Palestine.
“And Israel, in the way it is conducting its war on Lebanon, has fostered this environment of solidarity.”
Abiad said this sense of solidarity was evident on Sept. 16 and 17, when Hezbollah communication devices, including pagers and walkie-talkies, exploded simultaneously in a coordinated attack blamed on Israel that killed at least 32 and injured more than 3,000.
“You could see this on the day of the attack on the explosive devices,” said Abiad. “We at the Ministry of Health were sending patients all across the country because we had to have a full response from all hospitals.
“And even when we were sending patients into hospitals that were in areas that are politically, or from a religious perspective, diametrically opposite to Hezbollah, the people who were injured were welcomed, they were cared for, they were given attention.
“This is something that Israel has repeatedly failed to understand; that its indiscriminate targeting or its dehumanization of all, for example, Arabs, or communities, would only lead to more sympathy with the ‘said’ enemies.”
On Saturday, Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah had been killed in an Israeli strike on the group’s Dahiyeh stronghold in Beirut. The attack follows days of Israeli strikes across Lebanon, which, as of Saturday, had left 1,030 people — including 156 women and 87 children — dead.
Hezbollah began rocketing northern Israel last October in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Israel retaliated by mounting strikes on Hezbollah targets.
Since mid-September, Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets across the country have rapidly escalated. However, the roots of the conflict run deeper than last October. The two sides have been locked in an intermittent confrontation since the Lebanese civil war.
Hezbollah was formed during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Major escalations occurred in 1993, 1996, and particularly in 2006, when a full-scale war erupted, causing significant destruction in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has since strengthened its military capabilities, while maintaining its role in Lebanese politics. Tensions continued, with periodic border clashes, as the group has evolved into a key player in the broader Israel-Iran proxy conflict.
Israel withdrew its troops from Lebanon in 2000, creating the possibility of stability for Lebanon. However, territorial disputes remained, which Hezbollah exploited to build support and to justify continued resistance to Israel.
Does a share of the blame for the continuation of hostilities, therefore, belong to Hezbollah?
“No, that’s the exact opposite,” said Abiad. “If you go back to the UN resolutions — especially 1701. In 1701, it was very clear that, first of all, Israel has to withdraw from all the areas in Lebanon, which did not happen. And up till now, Israel still occupies Lebanese territory.”
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, ending the Lebanon War. It demanded the disarmament of Hezbollah, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, and the deployment of Lebanese and UN peacekeeping troops to stabilize the region and prevent future conflict.
“Secondly, it very clearly mentioned that Israel should not violate Lebanese airspace, which also did not happen; Israel has been violating Lebanese airspace continuously since the 2000 partial withdrawal from Lebanon,” said Abiad.
“So, indeed, unfortunately, these actions by Israel gave the pretext for Hezbollah to continue today what it is doing now. But let’s be very clear, Israel didn’t fulfill that part of 1701. And even now, Lebanon is saying we are ready to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions.”
One particularly irksome issue relates to the Shebaa Farms — a dispute that centers on a small strip of land claimed by Lebanon but occupied by Israel since 1967.
While Israel and the UN consider it part of Syria’s Golan Heights, Lebanon argues the area is Lebanese, fueling tensions, especially involving Hezbollah, over its sovereignty.
Given what is now occurring in Lebanon, does Abiad believe continuing the Shebaa Farms dispute with Israel has been worthwhile? Surely a negotiated deal would have been a far better option?
“But that depends on the other party accepting a negotiation,” said Abiad. “And, up to now, it has been very clear that Israel is not interested in a negotiated outcome.”
Whoever is ultimately to blame for prolonging the conflict, the result today is mass displacement, civilians killed, thousands injured, and public health system under extreme strain.
The ongoing conflict has created a massive humanitarian crisis, with widespread displacement across the country. According to the Lebanese government’s estimates, nearly 500,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to escalating violence.
Abiad highlighted the magnitude of the displacement from the south. “Before the attacks, the number released by the disaster management side was 130,000 displaced,” he said.
“Remember that by that time, there was an escalation of hostilities by Israel, and the populations were internally displaced still into southern areas.”
Abiad said the Lebanese government has established 400 public shelters, which currently house about 70,000 people. However, he said the total number of displaced people is far higher.
“We estimate that usually, from our past experience in the 2006 war, the number of people, whether they are living with friends, family, in homes they rented, or even across the border into neighboring countries, is four to five times as many as there are in shelters,” he said.
“And that’s why we really believe that the tally of people who have been displaced is probably around 400,000 to 500,000.”
The pressure on hospitals, in particular, is reaching breaking point.
“The daily tally of casualties keeps rising, as hospitals get overwhelmed with casualties,” said Abiad. “Can we continue all this? The answer is we are working at nearly full capacity, I would say. And it is becoming more tough as the war drags on.”
He added: “I think the most challenging would be fuel. I think that, concerning nurses, hospital beds, medical supplies, medications, as I said, we have been stocking up on our inventory. But really, fuel is going to be a critical issue.
“Hospitals, ambulances, they all require fuel to function. Now we have been increasing the renewable-energy budgets in our hospitals — 15 of our public hospitals now have renewable energy, constituting almost 40 percent of their energy requirements.
“Almost 200 of our primary health care centers now completely can work or function on renewable energy. But clearly I would say fuel is going to be critical if there is a further escalation.”
On top of this, Abiad accused Israel of deliberately targeting medical personnel — something he says constitutes a war crime.
“Do we consider this a war crime? Of course, we consider this a war crime,” said Abiad, adding that this was not just the view of the Lebanese government but echoed by international legal bodies.
“When we listen to the International Court of Justice, these are the experts on what is international humanitarian law and whether it has been violated. So these are the experts telling us that what Israel is doing constitutes war crimes.”
Second French national killed in Lebanon: ministry
“We confirm the death of a second French national,” said the foreign ministry statement
Last Monday, an 87-year-old French woman was killed when her home collapsed following an explosion in the south of the country
Updated 29 September 2024
AFP
PARIS: A second French national has been killed in Lebanon, France’s foreign ministry said Sunday, as Israel carried out fresh strikes against the country’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.
The announcement came as French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot flew into Beirut Sunday evening for talks with the authorities there and bringing humanitarian aid.
“We confirm the death of a second French national,” said the foreign ministry statement, adding that they would release more details later.
Last Monday, an 87-year-old French woman was killed when her home collapsed following an explosion in the south of the country.
Israeli warplanes target power stations, Yemen’s Houthi-held Hodeidah
The airstrikes had “completely” destroyed the Al-Hali power plant, Hodeidah’s main power station, rendering it inoperable and burying workers
Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported three workers were found under debris at the plant while rescuers were attempting to find more trapped people
Updated 29 September 2024
Saeed Al-Batati
AL MUKALLA: Israeli warplanes on Sunday bombed two ports and two power plants in Hodeidah, the Houthi-held western city in Yemen, a day after the Iran-backed Houthis claimed to have fired a ballistic missile and drone at Israel.
Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported that Israeli warplanes launched a number of airstrikes on Hodeidah city port and Ras Issa port, including a major oil export terminal and Al-Hali and Al-Katheeb power plants.
The airstrikes had “completely” destroyed the Al-Hali power plant, Hodeidah’s main power station, rendering it inoperable and burying workers.
Al-Masirah said three workers were found under debris at the plant while rescuers were attempting to find more trapped people.
Images and videos shared on social media showed large balls of fire and smoke at the targeted oil storage facilities at Hodeidah Port and other locations.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its warplanes had attacked Houthi targets in Hodeidah and the Ras Issa regions.
Fearing that the airstrikes on facilities in Hodeidah would cause an oil-buying panic, the Houthi-run oil company issued a statement immediately following the strikes, assuring people in areas under its control that there were sufficient oil supplies and telling fuel station owners not to close stations or raise prices.
“The Yemeni Oil Company confirms that it has already taken the necessary precautions for any emergency and that the supply situation in the free zones is completely stable,” it said.
The airstrikes came a day after the Houthis claimed to have launched a ballistic missile at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, and vowed to carry out similar drone and missile strikes on Israel in the future in support of Palestine to put pressure on Israel to end its war in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli warplanes first launched airstrikes on Houthi targets in Hodeidah on July 20, killing and wounding 90 people a day after the Houthis fired a drone at Tel Aviv, killing one person and injuring several others.
Since November the Houthis have fired hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at international commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea and other seas off Yemen, as well as at Israel, in what the Yemeni militia claims is an effort to support the Palestinian people.
