Netanyahu cuts short his visit to New York and returns to Israel early

Israel – Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short his visit to the United States, where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly meetings, after Israel carried out violent and unprecedented raids on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Netanyahu’s office said, in a statement, “The Prime Minister decided to advance his return to Tel Aviv, as his plane takes off tonight (Friday) from the United States,” while he was supposed to return to Israel on Sunday, according to his office.

Netanyahu’s early return comes in the wake of the Israeli occupation army’s announcement that its warplanes attacked, yesterday, Friday, the headquarters of the central command of the Lebanese faction movement in the southern suburb of Beirut, and targeted the movement’s Secretary-General, who Israel says was present at the place.

Israeli media described the attack in the southern suburb as the strongest Israeli attack on Beirut since the start of the war on Gaza last October, and added that the Israeli security establishment is examining whether Nasrallah was killed or injured in the aforementioned raid.

In a related context, Israeli media said today that there is a state of alert and preparedness in all Israeli embassies around the world after the recent raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Israeli warplanes launched more than 40 raids on Friday evening and Saturday dawn on buildings in various areas of the southern suburb of Beirut, causing fires and massive destruction in several sites and buildings in the suburb.

Since Monday, the Israeli army has launched the “most violent and widespread” attack on Lebanon since the beginning of the confrontations with the Lebanese factions about a year ago, resulting in 726 deaths, including children and women, in addition to 2,173 wounded, according to data from the Lebanese authorities.

The number of displaced persons registered in the shelter centers approved by the National Operations Room in Lebanon as of Friday evening reached 86,600, while the number of shelter centers reached 644.