A portrait of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stands amid destruction in an area targeted by an Israeli nighttime airstrike in Saksakiyeh on September 26, 2024.
Mahmoud Zayat | AFP | Getty Images
Potential successor to slain Hezbollah leader Said Hassan Nasrallah Lebanese security sources said on Saturday that he had been out of contact since Friday and there were reports of Israeli air strikes against him.
Israel carried out a large-scale attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs late Thursday in an operation targeting Iran-backed Lebanese groups, with Axios citing three Israeli officials saying the targets were Hashim Safieddin In an underground bunker.
A Lebanese security source and two other Lebanese security sources said that Israeli attacks in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh since Friday have prevented rescuers from searching the site of the attack.
Hezbollah has not made any comments about Safiedine since the attack.
Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on Friday that the military was still evaluating Thursday night’s airstrike, which he said targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters.
The death of Nasrallah’s rumored successor would be another blow to Hezbollah and its patron Iran. Israel’s attacks on the region last year accelerated dramatically in the past few weeks, decimating Hezbollah’s leadership.
Israel on Saturday expanded its conflict in Lebanon with its first attack on the northern city of Tripoli, a Lebanese security official said, after more bombs hit Beirut suburbs and Israeli forces launched attacks in the south.
After nearly a year of fighting with Hezbollah, Israel has begun an intensive bombing campaign in Lebanon and has sent troops across the border in recent weeks. The fighting has previously been largely limited to areas along the Israeli-Lebanese border, coinciding with Israel’s annual war. Gaza War against the Palestinian group Hamas.
Israel says its goal is to return tens of thousands of citizens safely to their homes in northern Israel, which has been bombarded by Hezbollah since October 8 last year.
Israeli strikes eliminated much of Hezbollah’s senior military leadership, including Secretary-General Nasrallah Nasrallah in a September 27 airstrike.
Israeli attacks also killed hundreds of ordinary Lebanese, including aid workers, and forced 1.2 million people, nearly a quarter of the population, to flee their homes, Lebanese officials said.
An attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli on Saturday killed a Hamas member, his wife and two children, Lebanese security officials told Reuters. Media affiliated with the Palestinian group also said the attack killed a leader of the group’s armed wing.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the attack on Tripoli, a majority Sunni Muslim port city that was also targeted by Israeli warplanes during the 2006 war with Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, Israel conducts nightly bombings of Dahiya, once a bustling, densely populated area of Beirut and a Hezbollah stronghold.
Thick smoke billowed over Dahiya on Saturday, with much of the area reduced to rubble and residents fleeing to Beirut or other parts of Lebanon.
In northern Israel, air raid sirens sent people fleeing for shelter amid Lebanese rocket attacks.
Israel weighs Iran’s options
The violence comes as the anniversary of Hamas’ attacks in southern Israel approaches. October 7, According to Israeli statistics, the attack killed 1,200 people in 2023, with about 250 of them taken hostage.
Subsequent Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Displaced That’s nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million people.
Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas and lost a key commander of its elite Revolutionary Guards this year in Israeli air strikes in Syria, fired a series of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday. The attack caused little damage.
Israel has Weighing options its response to the Iranian attack.
Oil prices rose over possible attacks on Iranian oil facilities as Israel pursues its goal of pushing back Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and eliminating its Hamas ally in Gaza.
President of the United States Joe Biden Friday urged Israel Consider alternatives strikes against Iranian oil fields, adding that he believed Israel had not yet reached a conclusion Respond to Iran.
Israeli news website Ynet reported that Michael Kurilla, the top US general in the Middle East, will travel to Israel tomorrow. Israeli and U.S. officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
