Israel targets potential Hezbollah chief and intel HQ in Lebanon; Iran says it will not back down

Update An Israeli Apache attack helicopter fires a missile towards southern Lebanon, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel, October 4, 2024. (REUTERS)
1 / 2
An Israeli Apache attack helicopter fires a missile towards southern Lebanon, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel, October 4, 2024. (REUTERS)
Update Israel targets potential Hezbollah chief and intel HQ in Lebanon; Iran says it will not back down
2 / 2
Flames and smoke rise from a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh on Oct. 4, 2024, as Beirut's Rafik Hariri International airport is seen in the background. (AP)
Short Url
Updated 05 October 2024
Follow

Israel targets potential Hezbollah chief and intel HQ in Lebanon; Iran says it will not back down

Israel targets potential Hezbollah chief and intel HQ in Lebanon; Iran says it will not back down
  • Attack reportedly targeted Hashem Safieddine, the potential successor to Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, killed by Israel a week ago
  • Israeli strike also targeted a warehouse next to Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Israel said it had targeted the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut overnight and was assessing the damage on Friday after a series of strikes on senior figures in the group that Iran’s Supreme Leader dismissed as counterproductive.
Israel has been weighing options in its response to Iranian ballistic missile attack on Tuesday, which Iran had carried out in response to Israel’s military action in Lebanon.

Oil prices have risen on the possibility of an attack on Iran’s oil facilities as Israel pursues its goals of pushing back Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and eliminating their Hamas allies in Gaza.
The air attack on Beirut, part of a wider assault that has driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes, was reported to have targeted the potential successor to the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, killed by Israel a week ago.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Biden says would think of alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were Israel

• UN spokesperson calls civilian toll in Israel’s Lebanon campaign ‘totally unacceptable’

• Death toll surpasses 2,000 in Lebanon, health ministry says

Hashem Safieddine’s fate was unclear and neither Israel nor Hezbollah have offered any comment.
US President Joe Biden said on Friday he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel’s shoes, adding that he thinks Israel has not yet concluded how to respond to Iran.

Biden was asked at a White House press briefing if he thought that by not engaging in diplomacy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to influence the Nov. 5 US election in which Republican former President Donald Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Whether he is trying to influence the election, I don’t know but I am not counting on that,” Biden said in response. “No administration has done more to help Israel than I have.”
The government in Lebanon says more than 2,000 people have been killed there in the past year, most in the past two weeks.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called the toll on civilians “totally unacceptable.”
The Lebanese government has accused Israel of targeting civilians, pointing to dozens of women and children killed. It has not broken down the overall figure between civilians and Hezbollah fighters.
Israel says it targets military capabilities and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians. It accuses Hezbollah and Hamas of hiding among civilians, which they deny.
The latest bloodletting in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict stems from an attack by Palestinian Hamas militants’ Oct. 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 and in which about 250 were taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations that Israel denies.
The Israeli military said some 70 projectiles were launched from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Friday evening and were either intercepted or fell in open land.
Israel sent ground forces into Lebanon this week after the Iranian missiles attacks. It has said its ground operations are “localized” in villages near the border, but has not specified how far into Lebanon they would advance or how long they would last.
Israel says the operations aim to allow tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after Hezbollah bombardments that forced them to evacuate from its north.

 

 

IRAN VOWS NOT TO BACK DOWN
Iran’s missile salvo was partly in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hezbollah secretary-general Nasrallah, a dominant figure who had turned the group into a powerful armed and political force with reach across the Middle East.
Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a huge crowd in Tehran Iran and its regional allies would not back down.
Israel’s adversaries in the region should “double your efforts and capabilities... and resist the aggressive enemy,” Khamenei said in a rare appearance leading Friday prayers, at which he mentioned Nasrallah and called Iran’s attack on Israel legal and legitimate.
He said Iran would not “procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty” in confronting Israel.
The semi-official Iranian news agency SNN quoted Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Ali Fadavi as saying on Friday that if Israel attacked, Tehran would target Israeli energy and gas installations.
Axios reporter Barak Ravid cited three Israeli officials as saying that Hezbollah official Safieddine, rumored to be Nasrallah’s successor, had been targeted in an underground bunker in Beirut overnight but his fate was not clear.
Israeli Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said on Friday the military was still assessing the Thursday night airstrikes, which he said targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters.
Earlier the Israeli military reported that it had killed the head of Hezbollah’s communication networks, Mohammad Rashid Sakafi. It declined to comment on the report that Safieddine was targeted.
Hezbollah made no comment on the fate of Sakafi.
Khamenei said assassinations would just spur more attacks.
“Every strike launched by any group against Israel is a service to the region and to all humanity,” he said, adding that Afghanistan should join the “defense.”
FLATTENED BEIRUT BUILDINGS
In Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs, many buildings have been reduced to rubble. Nearly all the storefronts in the main market street, Moawad Souk, were damaged and the road filled with broken glass.
“We’re alive but don’t know for how long,” said Nouhad Chaib, a 40-year-old man already displaced from the south.
The Islamic Health Authority, a civil defense agency linked to Hezbollah, said 11 medics had been killed in three separate Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon on Friday.
The Israeli military said that in the past day it had struck several weapons storage facilities, command and control centers, and additional Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the Beirut area.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, visiting Beirut and meeting with top Lebanese officials, said Tehran supported efforts for a ceasefire in Lebanon provided it was backed by Hezbollah and was simultaneous with a Gaza ceasefire.

 


Israel armys says ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

Israel armys says ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid
Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Israel armys says ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

Israel armys says ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid
  • Israeli military: Slain militants had ‘led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim’

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Friday it had “eliminated” five Hamas militants, including two commanders, in an overnight raid in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia.
In a statement, the military and the Shin Bet security agency said they had “eliminated five Hamas terrorists, including a Nukhba (commando) company commander and an additional company commander who participated in the October 7 massacre” that sparked the Gaza war last year, adding that the slain militants had “led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim,” a kibbutz in southern Israel.


Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call

Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call
Updated 22 November 2024
Follow

Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call

Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call
  • The Israeli army also called overnight for the evacuation of several areas in the south of the country

BEIRUT: Strikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday shortly after the Israeli army called for the evacuation of certain neighborhoods, AFPTV footage showed.
In addition to the suburbs of the Lebanese capital, the Israeli army called overnight for the evacuation of several areas in the south of the country.


UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN
Updated 22 November 2024
Follow

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN
  • UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started
  • UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013

UNITED NATIONS: The arrest warrant issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza does not bar UN officials from meeting with him in the course of their work, the UN said Thursday.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started as a result of the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, although there have been contacts with the Israeli leader by UN officials in the region.
Guterres has been declared persona non grata by Israel, which accuses him of being biased in favor of the Palestinians. So talks between him and Netanyahu are very unlikely.
After the warrants issued Thursday by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013.
“The rule is that there should not be any contacts between UN officials and individuals subject to arrest warrants,” Dujarric said.
But limited contacts are allowed “to address fundamental issues, operational issues, and our ability to carry out our mandates,” he added.
In late October, at a summit of the BRICS countries in Russia, Guterres met with President Vladimir Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the ICP over the war in Ukraine.
That meeting, during which Guterres reiterated his condemnation of the Russian invasion, angered Ukraine.


Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister
Updated 22 November 2024
Follow

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister
  • Palestinian Authority calls on UN member states to ensure the warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, who are accused of war crimes, are acted upon
  • The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, says decision is ‘binding’ on all members of the International Criminal Court

LONDON: Palestinians welcomed the decision by the International Criminal Court on Thursday to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of defense, Yoav Gallant.

The Palestinian Authority said the court’s decision comes as Israeli forces continue to bomb Gaza in a conflict that has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, and it hopes the ruling will help to restore faith in international law, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Netanyahu and Gallant are the first leading officials from a nation allied with the West against whom the ICC has issued arrest warrants since the court was established in July 2002. It also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, the head of the military wing of Hamas. Israeli authorities said in August he was killed by their forces in an attack the previous month, though Hamas have not confirmed this.

All three men are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their actions during the war in Gaza or the Oct. 7 attacks.

The PA said the decision to issue warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant was important because Palestinians “are being subjected to genocide and war crimes, represented by starvation as a method of warfare,” as well as mass displacement and collective punishment.

The PA, which signed up to the ICC in 2015, called on all UN member states to ensure the warrants are acted upon and to “cut off contact and meetings with the international wanted men, Netanyahu and Gallant.” Israel is not a member of the ICC.

The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, posted a message on social media platform X on Thursday in which he described the court’s decisions as “binding” on all those who have signed up to it.

“These decisions are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute (the treaty that established the ICC), which includes all EU member states,” he wrote.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister who has spent 17 years in office during three spells in charge since 1996, denounced the decision by the ICC to issue the warrant as “antisemitic.”

He said it would “have serious consequences for the court and those who will cooperate with it in this matter.”


Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border
Updated 21 November 2024
Follow

Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

MASNAA, Lebanon: Stuck in no man’s land on the war-hit Lebanon-Syria border, cab driver Fadi Slika now scrapes a living ferrying passengers between two deep craters left by Israeli air strikes.

The journey is just 2 km, but Slika has no other choice — his taxi is his only source of income.

“My car is stuck between craters: I can’t reach Lebanon or return to Syria. Meanwhile, we’re under threat of (Israeli) bombardment,” said the 56-year-old.

“I work and sleep here between the two holes,” he said.

A dual Lebanese-Syrian national, Slika has been living in his car, refusing to abandon it when it broke down until a mechanic brought a new engine.

His taxi is one of the few that has been operating between the two craters since Israeli strikes in October effectively blocked traffic on the Masnaa crossing.

The bombed area has become a boon for drivers of tuk-tuks, who can navigate the craters easily. 

A makeshift stall, the Al-Joura (pit in Arabic) rest house, and a shop are set up nearby.

Slika went for 12 days without work while waiting for his taxi to be fixed. The car has become his home. A warm blanket covers its rear seats against eastern Lebanon’s cold winters, and a big bag of pita bread sits on the passenger side.

Before being stranded, Slika made about $100 for trips from Beirut to Damascus.

Now, an average fare between the craters is just $5.50 each way, though he said he charged more.

On Sept. 23, Israel intensified its aerial bombing of Lebanon and later sent in ground troops, nearly a year after Hezbollah initiated limited exchanges of fire in support of Hamas amid the Gaza war.

Since then, Israel has bombed several land crossings with Syria out of service. 

It accuses Hezbollah of using what are key routes for people fleeing the war in Lebanon to transfer weapons from Syria.

Amid the hardship of the conflict, more than 610,000 people have fled from Lebanon to Syria, mostly Syrians, according to Lebanese authorities.

Undeterred by attacks, travelers still trickle through Masnaa, traversing the two craters that measure about 10 meters deep and 30 meters wide.

On the other side of the road, Khaled Khatib, 46, was fixing his taxi, its tires splattered with mud and hood coated in dust.

“After the first strike, I drove from Syria and parked my car before the crater. When the second strike hit, I got stuck between the two holes,” he said, sweat beading as he looked under the hood.

“We used to drive people from Damascus to Beirut. Now, we take them from one crater to another.”

Khatib doesn’t charge passengers facing tough times, he said, adding he had been displaced from southern Beirut, hammered by Israeli raids since September. He moved back to his hometown near the Masnaa crossing.

Despite harsh times, a sense of camaraderie reigns.

The drivers “became like brothers. We eat together at the small stall every day ... and we help each other fix our cars,” he said.

Mohamed Yassin moved his coffee stall from the Masnaa crossing closer to the pit after the strike, offering breakfast, lunch, and coffee. “We try to help people as much as possible,” he said.

Farther from the Lebanese border, travelers crossed the largest of the two crevasses, wearing plastic coverings on their shoes to avoid slipping in the mud.

A cab driver on a mound called out, “Taxi to Damascus!” while tuk-tuks and trucks ferried passengers, bags, and mattresses across.

Nearby, Aida Awda Mubarak, a Syrian mother of six, haggled with a tuk-tuk driver over the $1 fare.

The 52-year-old said she was out of work and needed to see her son after the east Lebanon town where he lives was hit by Israeli strikes.

“Sometimes we just can’t afford to pay for a tuk-tuk or a cab,” she said.