The air raids continue. Since 5 a.m. (4 a.m. Paris time) on Wednesday, September 25, Israeli bombings have been hitting southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese news agency NNA, but also the region of Baalbek, located in the east of the country, one of Hezbollah’s strongholds, according to the channel of the pro-Iranian movement and other Lebanese media. In response, Hezbollah claims to have fired a ballistic missile at the headquarters of Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, in the suburbs of Tel Aviv. “The Islamic Resistance launched a Qader 1 ballistic missile at 6:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. Paris time) on Wednesday”Hezbollah said in a statement. The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the reports. An escalation between Israel and Hezbollah in the Middle East that is causing concern in the international community. Follow our live coverage.
An emergency meeting at the UN. The UN Security Council is due to meet urgently on Wednesday, at the request of France. Echoing other leaders around the world, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said he feared “a full-fledged war” and that “Lebanon becomes like Gaza.” In an interview on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, he described the situation as “triple tragedy” : “We already have Gaza, we already have the West Bank, so we have two theaters of operations that have become active front lines.” And now, “we also have Lebanon”, he said.
Hezbollah official killed. Lebanon’s Iran-backed Shiite movement confirmed on Wednesday that one of its military leaders, Ibrahim Mohammed Kobeissi, had been killed in an Israeli bombing raid on the southern suburbs of the capital on Tuesday, which left a total of six dead and 15 wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Rockets fired at Israel. In response, Hezbollah fired “about 300 rockets” on Israeli territory, “injuring six civilians and soldiers, most of them slightly”according to the Israeli army. The Lebanese Shiite movement claimed responsibility for 18 attacks, including against the headquarters of the Israeli army’s northern command near Safed and a naval base south of Haifa, the major northern port.
Nearly 500 000 displaced people in Lebanon. The number of displaced Lebanese is approaching half a million since the escalation of Israel’s bombing campaign against Hezbollah, the Lebanese foreign minister announced Tuesday evening. The evacuation of nationals is being prepared: the British government announced late Tuesday evening that it was sending troops to Cyprus to prepare for a possible evacuation of its nationals from Lebanon.