Middle East latest: Israel says it killed a senior Hezbollah commander as more rockets are fired
The Israeli military said Tuesday it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike on Beirut while the militant group’s acting leader promised more fighting against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and rocket fire into Israel.
The military said the strike killed Suhail Husseini, who it said was responsible for overseeing logistics, budget and management of the group. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
Sheikh Naim Kassem, the acting leader of Hezbollah, said in a defiant televised statement that his group’s military capabilities are still intact. He said that Hezbollah has replaced all of its senior commanders after weeks of heavy Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon, including targeted strikes that killed much of its top command in a matter of days.
Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Monday, the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, underscoring their resilience in the face of a devastating Israeli offensive in Gaza that has killed about 42,000 people, according to local medical officials.
A year ago, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, which began firing rockets at Israel on Oct. 8, 2023. On Monday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an Israeli strike in the country’s south, part of a wider bombardment, killed at least 10 firefighters. Hezbollah fired new barrages despite its recent losses.
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Here is the latest:
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said 85 projectiles were launched Tuesday from Lebanon toward northern Israel in a significant burst of fire.
The military said most of the projectiles were intercepted. Hezbollah confirmed it fired the salvo Tuesday.
Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said a 70-year-old woman was moderately wounded by shrapnel. Israeli media aired footage of what appeared to be minor damage to buildings near the coastal city of Haifa.
The military also said that it struck Hezbollah targets in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, where the militant group has a strong presence.
BEIRUT — Hezbollah’s acting leader said Tuesday that even more Israelis will be displaced as the militant group extends its rocket fire deeper into Israel, in a defiant televised statement marking the anniversary of fighting that escalated into war last month.
Sheikh Naim Kassem said Hezbollah’s military capabilities are still intact and that it has replaced all of its senior commanders after weeks of heavy Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon, including targeted strikes that killed much of its top command in a matter of days.
He also said Israeli forces have not been able to advance after launching a ground incursion into Lebanon last week. The Israeli military said a fourth division is now taking part in the incursion, which has expanded to the west, but operations still appear to be confined to a narrow strip along the border.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said a reserve division has begun limited operations against Hezbollah in southwestern Lebanon, in an apparent widening of its ground incursion.
The military said Tuesday that the 146th Division is the first reserve division to enter Lebanon since it launched ground operations just inside the border last week.
The announcement came a day after the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate from over a dozen towns and villages in southwestern Lebanon, including the coastal town of Naqoura, where U.N. peacekeepers are headquartered.
Israel has called on people to evacuate several dozen communities across southern Lebanon, many of them north of a U.N.-declared buffer zone established after the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
Israel says its operations are aimed at halting a year of Hezbollah rocket attacks so that tens of thousands of its citizens can return to their homes in the north. Hezbollah has vowed to keep up the attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
The fighting, which escalated in mid-September, has displaced over 1 million Lebanese.
BEIRUT — The U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon and the head of the peacekeeping force deployed along the border with Israel said that a negotiated solution is the only way to restore stability and the time to act is now.
The statement by Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro of the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL came on the first anniversary of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group starting attacks on Israeli military posts along the border in support of its Hamas allies in the Gaza Strip.
Over the past weeks, the exchanges along the border have expanded into Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah missile attacks that are hitting deeper inside both countries. In Lebanon, more than 1 million people have been displaced and over 1,300 killed since mid-September.
Plasschaert and Lázaro said Hezbollah’s attacks starting on Oct. 8, 2023 were in violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
“Too many lives have been lost, uprooted, and devastated, while civilians on both sides of the Blue Line are left wanting for security and stability,” the statement said referring to the border line along the Lebanon-Israel border.
“Today, one year later, the near-daily exchanges of fire have escalated into a relentless military campaign whose humanitarian impact is nothing short of catastrophic,” the statement said.
It warned that further that further violence and destruction will neither solve the underlying issues nor make anyone safer in the long run.
“A negotiated solution is the only pathway to restore the security and stability that civilians on both sides so desperately want and deserve,” the statement said. “The time to act accordingly is now.”
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey is deploying two navy ships to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon amid the rising tensions in the region.
According to a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the ships, which together can accommodate up to 2,000 passengers, will depart for Lebanon on Tuesday. The evacuations are scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
The ministry said additional evacuations would be organized if necessary.
Besides evacuating citizens, the ships will be carrying humanitarian aid for Lebanon, the ministry said.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — At least 30 people, including six children and two women, were killed in Israeli strikes in central Gaza late Monday.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were taken, provided an updated toll Tuesday as more bodies were recovered from the rubble.
The strikes took place on the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel that triggered the war.
Two strikes hit houses in the built-up Bureij refugee camp, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. An Associated Press journalist counted 21 bodies on Monday, along with about a dozen wounded, including several children.
The Palestinian death toll in the war in Gaza is nearing 42,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and militants.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike on Beirut.
The military said Tuesday that it killed Suhail Husseini, who it said was responsible for overseeing logistics, budget and management of the militant group.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
The military said Husseini was involved in the transfer of advanced weapons from Iran and their distribution to different Hezbollah units, and that he was a member of the group’s military council.
Israeli strikes have killed Hezbollah’s overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders in recent weeks. Last week, Israel launched what it says is a limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah says it has already replaced its slain commanders. It has vowed to keep firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel until there is a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, where its ally Hamas has been at war with Israel for a year.
