A Lebanese security source told AFP that a “senior official” of pro-Iranian Hezbollah was targeted by the Israeli raid early Saturday on the densely populated Basta neighborhood in Beirut. “A senior Hezbollah official was targeted,” said this source without revealing his identity. “It was not possible to know if he was killed,” she added on condition of anonymity, after the Ministry of Health reported 15 dead and 63 injured in the raid which destroyed a residential building. Searches under the rubble are continuing to try to find possible additional victims, the ministry said.
Hezbollah denies presence of targeted officials in neighborhood
Amin Cherri, a Hezbollah deputy, for his part denied that a leader of the Lebanese movement had been targeted in Basta. “There are no party officials in the two targeted buildings,” he said during a visit to the site.
Since October 8, 2023, more than 3,650 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Ministry of Health, most since Israel and Hezbollah entered into open war on September 23.
Israel says it wants to put Hezbollah and Hamas, allies of Iran, its enemy, out of harm's way. He vowed to destroy Hamas after the unprecedented attack of this Palestinian Islamist movement on its soil on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, and seeks to stop Hezbollah's rocket fire on its territory.
Before dawn, Beirut residents woke up to the sound of large explosions, after Israeli strikes destroyed a residential building in the Basta neighborhood, causing a huge crater and, according to the Health Ministry, at least 15 dead and 63 injured.
Search operations
Search operations are continuing to find victims under the rubble. The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the strikes. “We were sleeping and suddenly we heard three or four missiles. The strike was so powerful that I thought the building was going to collapse on us,” Samir, a resident of Basta, told AFP.
Several Israeli strikes also targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut on Saturday, after calls to evacuate, according to the National News Agency (ANI). In Hadath, one of the targeted areas, bombed buildings caught fire. In Chiyah, another targeted neighborhood, a building was transformed into a smoking pile of stone and scrap metal.
In a statement, the Israeli army said it had targeted “Hezbollah command centers and other terrorist infrastructures” in the southern suburbs. Eight people, including four children, were also killed in an Israeli strike in eastern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Israel also bombed localities in southern Lebanon, notably Khiam, which its troops are seeking to take to facilitate their advance in the region, according to ANI.
On September 30, the Israeli army launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold bordering northern Israel.
Permanent tensions
On October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas's attack on Israel, Hezbollah opened a “support front” for its Palestinian ally. After a year of cross-border violence and after weakening Hamas in incessantly bombed Gaza, Israel moved the heart of the fighting to Lebanon by launching an intense bombing campaign on September 23 on Hezbollah strongholds. Since October 8, 2023, more than 3,640 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Ministry of Health, most since September 23.
Israel says it wants to distance Hezbollah from the border areas of southern Lebanon to allow the return of some 60,000 inhabitants of the north of the country displaced by rocket fire.
In Lebanon, tens of thousands of residents have also been displaced. On Saturday, during a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz, American Defense Minister Lloyd Austin reaffirmed that his country, Israel's main ally, was in favor of a “diplomatic solution in Lebanon.”
He also called on Israel to “improve the terrible humanitarian situation” in the Gaza Strip, where the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants besieged by Israel for more than a year are threatened with famine according to the UN.
Palpable suffering
In the Gaza Strip, located on Israel's southern border, the Israeli army carried out new bombings which killed 19 Palestinians, according to Civil Defense. “Our life is nothing but misery. Let them kill us all to relieve us of this suffering,” exclaimed Oum Mohammad Abou Sabla, the sister of one of the victims killed in a strike in Khan Younes.
Considered a terrorist group by Israel, the European Union and the United States, Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007. Before besieging Gaza on October 9, 2023, Israel had imposed a blockade on the poor and overpopulated territory since 2007. .
On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the “courageous decision” of the International Criminal Court which issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.
This court also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, considered one of the masterminds of October 7, 2023. Israel announced that it had killed him in July in Gaza, but Hamas did not confirm his death.
In response to the Hamas attack, Israel launched a devastating military offensive in Gaza which left at least 44,176 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data, including hostages killed or died in captivity. That day, 251 people were kidnapped, 97 of whom remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
The armed wing of Hamas announced on Saturday the death of a hostage in a combat zone in northern Gaza, a claim not confirmed by the Israeli army.
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