The Israeli army carried out multiple airstrikes on Thursday on strongholds of pro-Iranian Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon bordering Israel and in the southern suburbs of Beirut where an area close to the country’s only international airport was hit.
The nighttime strikes on the suburbs of the Lebanese capital were preceded by a call from the Israeli army for residents to evacuate.
Since September 23, Israel has been carrying out a campaign of intensive strikes against the Islamist movement Hezbollah in Lebanon, and since September 30 a ground offensive in the south of the country, with the objective of bringing home some 60,000 inhabitants of the north. ‘Israel displaced by cross-border firefight.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets at Israel since the start of the war on October 7, 2023 in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and the Israeli army, claiming to act in support of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
On Thursday, the Israeli strike caused “minor damage” to buildings at Beirut international airport, “but not in the terminal,” an airport official who requested anonymity told AFP.
The Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ali Hamié, assured AFP that “the planes take off and land” without problem.
An AFP photographer saw a hangar adjoining the airport, badly damaged, by the strike, which came after Hezbollah announced on Wednesday that it had targeted a military base near Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s main airport.
Abou Elie, a taxi driver, was at Beirut airport at the time of the strike. “The whole parking lot shook,” he told AFP. “People carried their suitcases and started running,” he added, indicating that the area was covered in thick smoke.
“It gets repetitive. We had to flee our homes several times,” lamented Ramzi Zaiter, a resident of the southern suburbs.
The Israeli army is also continuing its strikes against Hezbollah in the south and east of Lebanon where it indicated having targeted dozens of targets and eliminated around “sixty terrorists” from the Shiite movement “in several strikes in Baalbek and in north of the Litani River”, located about thirty km from the Israeli border.
On Wednesday evening, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported a toll of 40 dead and 53 injured in Israeli strikes in eastern Lebanon, particularly in Baalbek.
2600 dead
More than 2,600 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah on September 23, the majority civilians, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told AFP.
Naïm Qassem, the new leader of Hezbollah, supported by Tehran, displayed his determination on Wednesday to continue the fight against Israel, despite the blows inflicted on his movement since the Israeli army reoriented the war against him that it has been waging for over of one year against Palestinian Hamas, also supported by Iran.
Hezbollah, whose leadership has been largely weakened, ensures that its men repel Israeli incursions and announces daily shots on Israel.
The Lebanese National News Agency (Ani, official) reported Thursday “violent fighting since midnight” between fighters of the Shiite movement and Israeli soldiers after an “attempted incursion by the Israeli enemy” into the territory. Lebanese from northern Israel.
On its southern border, Israel continues its war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip beset by a humanitarian disaster.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the attack carried out on October 7, 2023 by Hamas on Israeli soil.
“Wrong approaches”
In the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the president-elect discussed on Wednesday by telephone the “Iranian threat” and “agreed to cooperate for Israel’s security” , according to Mr. Netanyahu’s office.
Tehran, which has maintained tense relations with the United States for decades, said Thursday that it hoped that the election of Donald Trump to the White House would allow Washington to “revisit the erroneous approaches of the past.”
The Israeli army also announced that it had “eliminated around 50 terrorists” during the last 24 hours in Jabalia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, and began an operation in the Beit Lahia sector.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or died in captivity .
Of the 251 people kidnapped, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation in Gaza left 43,391 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, and caused a humanitarian disaster.
