New round of Israeli air raids on southern Beirut

(Beirut, Lebanon) The Israeli army carried out a new round of strikes on the south of Beirut, stronghold of the Shiite movement Hezbollah, in the night from Thursday to Friday, in one of the most violent raids since Israel intensified its bombing campaign on the country on September 23.

The Israeli army said Thursday that it would continue to inflict “severe blows” on Hezbollah, after three days of ground fighting against the armed Islamist movement in southern Lebanon which cost the lives of nine of its soldiers.

According to official figures, nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in a year of cross-border violence between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, including more than a thousand since September 23. The Lebanese government estimates the number of displaced people at around 1.2 million.

Thursday evening, “Israel struck the southern suburbs (of Beirut) eleven times in a row,” said a source close to the Islamist movement, on condition of anonymity.

The official Lebanese news agency ANI reported “more than ten consecutive strikes”, in “one of the most violent raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut since the start of the Israeli war against Lebanon”. .

Balls of flame

According to AFP correspondents, the strikes triggered car alarms and shook buildings in a wide area.

AFP images showed giant balls of flame rising from the targeted site, with thick smoke and flares.

The strikes resonated as far as mountainous regions outside Beirut, according to the ANI agency.

“During the night, the ground shook beneath our feet. The sky lit up” because of the force of the strikes and “the neighborhood became a ghost town,” Mohammed Sheaito, a 31-year-old taxi driver in the southern suburbs of Beirut, told AFP.

“We are afraid for our children, and this war is going to be long,” said Fatima Salah, a 35-year-old nurse.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced on the night of Thursday to Friday the deaths of 37 people in 24 hours in various Israeli strikes.

One of Thursday’s strikes hit Hezbollah’s “intelligence headquarters” near Beirut, according to the Israeli army.

According to the American site Axios, which cites three unidentified Israeli officials, Hachem Safieddine, potential successor to Hassan Nasrallah at the head of Hezbollah, was targeted on Wednesday evening by Israeli attacks. The Israeli army, questioned by AFP, has not yet confirmed this information.

Almost a year after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7, 2023 by Palestinian Hamas on Israeli soil, Israel announced in mid-September that it would move most of of its operations towards the northern front, on the Lebanese border.

Israel has said it will fight Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, to “victory” to allow the return of around 60,000 border region residents displaced for a year by the Shiite movement’s incessant rocket fire. towards the north of its territory.

Khamenei’s preaching

The now open war between Israel and Hezbollah is accompanied by an escalation between Israel and Iran, which fired 200 missiles into Israeli territory on Tuesday, leading to cross threats of retaliation between the two countries and new fears about a conflagration of the Middle East.

Iran claimed to respond to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah who died on September 27 in an Israeli strike near Beirut, and that of Ismaïl Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas killed on July 31 in an attack in Tehran attributed to Israel.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is due to lead the weekly prayer at 10:30 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Friday and deliver a sermon that could set the tone for Iran’s plans.

This rare speech must come three days before the first anniversary of the unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil.

“We can avoid” a “total war” in the Middle East, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday, while the international community fears a large-scale conflict in the region.

Earlier Thursday, he said he was “in discussions” with Israel about possible strikes against oil installations in Iran, a country that is one of the ten largest oil producers. Oil prices jumped after this statement.

The G7 countries expressed their “deep concern” about “the deteriorating situation” in the Middle East.

“Shredded Bodies”

In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority announced Thursday evening the death of 18 people in an Israeli strike on the Tulkarem refugee camp. The Israeli army claimed to have “eliminated” a local Hamas leader, Zahi abd al-Razaq, alias Zahi Oufi.

This is the deadliest strike in the West Bank since 2000, a source within the Palestinian security services told AFP. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

A witness, social worker Alaa Sroji, explained to AFP that an Israeli plane had “hit a cafeteria”. There are “children, young people whose bodies are torn to pieces,” he said.

The Israeli offensive continues in parallel on the Gaza Strip, devastated and besieged for a year.

On Thursday, seven people were killed by Israeli strikes in different sectors of this Palestinian territory, according to Civil Defense, which also reported five deaths in new strikes on Friday.