2024-09-21 09:00:48
afp_tickers
Hezbollah announced on Saturday that 31 people, including 16 Hezbollah members, were killed in an Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs the previous day in which two of its leaders were killed, a new blow to the party just days after the explosion in Beirut. .
The United Nations expressed deep concern on Friday as the battle lines shifted from Gaza to Lebanon, calling for “de-escalation” and “maximum restraint”.
Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abyad announced at a press conference on Saturday that the Israeli attack killed 31 people, including three children and seven women, explaining that rescue operations continued throughout the night.
A source close to the party reported on Saturday that an Israeli raid targeted a meeting in a basement of the party’s elite Radwan Unit, killing 16 party members.
According to Hezbollah, the dead included Ibrahim Aqil, commander of the elite force, and another senior commander in Radwan.
This refers to Ahmed Mahmoud Wehbe, who until the beginning of this year led the military operations of the Radwan forces within the framework of the “support” Palestinian Hamas movement, which It has been waging war against Israel in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, according to an Iranian-backed Lebanese party on Saturday.
The Israeli army announced on Friday that it had carried out a “precision” strike that resulted in the “liquidation” of Ibrahim Aguil and “about ten other officials” of Hezbollah.
Ibrahim Aqil was the second prominent Hezbollah military commander killed by Israel in Beirut since the group opened a front against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon nearly a year ago, after Fouad Shukr. official.
– A chaotic scene –
The United States has offered a $7 million reward for information about Ibrahim Aguirre, whom it is hunting for his alleged role in two 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and Resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Americans.
Shortly after the attack, AFP photographers at the scene saw a collapsed building and rescue workers evacuating victims amid chaotic scenes.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement that “attacks targeting densely populated residential areas once again prove that Israel’s enemies do not value any humanitarian, legal or moral considerations.”
Iran also believes that “the Zionist regime’s brutal and malicious air strikes on Beirut… blatantly violate the rules and regulations of international law, and also violate Lebanese sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security.”
As for Israeli Defense Minister Yove Galant, after the attack he threatened Israel’s “enemies”, saying they would not find “sanctuary… even in the suburbs of Beirut.”
Thousands of wireless communication devices used by Hezbollah members in an Israeli operation exploded on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing 37 people and injuring 2,931 others.
– “Asir Account” –
In a speech on Thursday, party secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah threatened a “difficult reckoning” in the wake of the communications equipment bombing.
Israel has not commented on the bombings in Beirut’s southern suburbs and in Hezbollah strongholds in southern and eastern Lebanon.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdullah Bouhabib announced that he had filed a complaint with the United Nations Security Council, saying that “Israeli’s terrorist electronic aggression constitutes a war crime.”
Bouhabib told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday that the bombing was “an unprecedented brutal and terrorist attack.” Targeting thousands of people of all ages in densely populated areas, including all regions of Lebanon, as they go about their daily lives in homes, streets, workplaces and shopping malls is terrorism in itself.
The first blasts of communications equipment carried by Hezbollah members came on Tuesday, shortly after Israel announced it was expanding its military targeting to the northern front in an effort to return tens of thousands of residents displaced by the blasts.
The previously announced main goals were to destroy Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007, and to free hostages held in the Palestinian strip.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah told Israeli leaders on Thursday that “unless the aggression against Gaza stops, the Lebanese front will not stop (despite) all these wounds and bloodshed… You will not be able to return Israel” . People in the north go north… do whatever you want… no, military escalation, no killing, no assassination, no total war to bring people back to the border.
– Bombing of Gaza Strip continues –
Meanwhile, Israeli bombing of Gaza continued, with civil defense authorities announcing the discovery of a woman’s body after an aerial bombardment of a house in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in the northern Palestinian strip.
Medical sources and witnesses also reported that a tent was bombed in the center of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as airstrikes near the Nasser Medical Center in the west of the city. house.
According to AFP statistics based on official Israeli statistics, the Gaza war broke out on October 7 and Hamas launched an attack, killing 1,205 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians. This number includes hostages who died in custody in the Gaza Strip.
During the attack, 251 people were abducted, 97 of whom remain in custody, and 33 of whom the military said were dead.
Israel has carried out devastating bombings and ground attacks in Gaza, killing at least 41,272 people, according to Hamas’ health ministry. The United Nations confirmed that most of the victims were women and children.
bur-sg/hs/h
1726921507
#Hezbollah #leaders #killed #Israeli #attack #Beiruts #southern #suburbs
