Israel has launched a fresh round of air strikes on Beirut overnight, with witnesses describing them as more powerful than the massive strike that killed Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah almost a week ago.
Israeli and US media reported that one of the targets of the strikes on the southern suburb of Dahiyeh was Hashem Safieddine, widely considered to be Nasrallah’s likely successor. There has been no official comment from either Hizbullah or Israel on his fate.
One Israeli strike on Friday morning hit near Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria, cutting off a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days, the Lebanese transport minister has told Reuters. Ali Hamieh said the strike hit right after the border crossing, still within Lebanese territory, creating a 4m-wide crater.
The news agency AFP reported that there had been at least 11 consecutive strikes on Dahiyeh, the southern Beirut suburb regarded as a Hizbullah stronghold, while one strike reportedly hit close to Beirut’s airport.
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Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm an Israeli air strike killed at least 18 people in a cafe. The Israel Defence Forces claimed it had killed a local Hamas leader, Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, in the attack, which levelled the entire building, along with several other Hamas members.
Civilians were also reportedly killed – including a mother and her two children according to Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera – and Palestinian media said it was the bloodiest single Israeli attack on the West Bank in 24 years. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that more people were buried under the rubble, citing a Red Crescent paramedic and local media.
Early this morning the Israeli military said it has detected about 20 “launches” from Lebanon and that all were either intercepted or fell in an open area.
The latest Israeli strikes on Beirut on Friday came after Israeli military ordered civilians near two buildings in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, to evacuate immediately in advance of air strikes. An Israeli military spokesperson published maps alongside the announcement, warning civilians to distance themselves at least 500 metres from the sites. Earlier on Thursday, multiple air strikes were heard in the Lebanese capital, with one of them reportedly hitting the office of Hizbullah’s media department in Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut.
An official from the media office said they were safe, despite the blast. Israel said it had targeted Hizbullah’s intelligence operation.
Joe Biden, the US president, said he was “discussing” possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil sites in response to Tehran’s missile attack earlier this week. His comments quickly sent oil prices soaring. Asked if he would “allow” Israel to retaliate against Iran, Biden said on Thursday that “we don’t ‘allow’ Israel, we advise Israel. And there is nothing going to happen today.”
On Wednesday, Mr Biden said he would not support an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites. Lebanon’s health ministry said 37 people were killed and 151 others wounded in Israeli strikes on the country on Thursday.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed, including 127 children, and 9,384 injured since the start of Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, the country’s health ministry said on Thursday. More than 1.2 million Lebanese people have been displaced by Israeli attacks.
Meanwhile, former Israeli PM Ehud Barak has predicted a large-scale attack on the Iranian oil industry. In an interview with the Guardian, he said Israel is likely to mount a large-scale air strike against Iran’s oil industry and possibly a symbolic attack on a military target related to its nuclear programme.
Mr Barak said there was no doubt there would be an Israeli military response to Iran’s assault on Tuesday with over 180 ballistic missiles, most of which were intercepted, but some landed on and around densely populated areas and Israeli military bases.
“Israel has a compelling need, even an imperative, to respond. I think that no sovereign nation on Earth could fail to respond,” he said. – The Guardian