The Israeli army carried out a raid on Friday in eastern Lebanon cutting a vital road axis with neighboring Syria, Lebanese authorities announced after a night of particularly violent bombings on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Lebanese Hezbollah.
Posted at 6:28 a.m.
In the midst of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, Abbas Araghchi, the head of diplomacy of Iran, an ally of Hezbollah, arrived in Beirut, three days after an Iranian missile attack on Israel and the day the supreme leader of Iran speaks out in a rare intervention.
The day after the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian movement on October 7, 2023 on Israeli soil, Hezbollah opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas, its ally.
After exchanges of cross-border fire for almost a year, Israel has intensified its bombings in Lebanon since September 23, targeting, according to its army, hundreds of Hezbollah targets, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah it killed on September 27 in a devastating raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The Israeli army also launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon on Monday, where nine of its soldiers died in the fighting against Hezbollah.
According to the official Lebanese news agency ANI, “enemy fighter planes carried out a raid on the Masnaa area, leading to the cutting of the international road” between Syria and Lebanon. It is in this area located in the Bekaa that the main border post with Syria is located.
“The road leading to the main humanitarian crossing point for thousands of Lebanese to Syria is now cut after an Israeli strike,” Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told AFP.
The Israeli army said Friday that it had struck Hezbollah positions on the border between Lebanon and Syria during the night in raids that led to the cutting of the international road between the two countries.
PHOTO MOHAMED AZAKIR, REUTERS
People carry their belongings while walking over rubble as they flee Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing, October 4, 2024.
“Infrastructure sites adjacent to the Masnaa border crossing between Syria and Lebanon were struck last night,” the army said in a statement.
According to the same source, these air raids aimed to prevent the entry of weapons into Lebanon from Syria and notably targeted “an underground tunnel used to smuggle weapons across the border”.
“The operations of this tunnel were directed by a unit [du mouvement islamiste libanais] responsible for transporting weapons from Iran and its proxies to Hezbollah in Lebanon,” she added.
Fighter jets “hit an underground tunnel that runs from the Lebanese border to the Syrian border. This 3.5 kilometer long tunnel allows the transfer and underground storage of large quantities of weapons,” according to the army.
Around 310,000 people, mainly Syrians, have fled to Syria via Masnaa in recent days.
“The ground shook”
The strike in eastern Lebanon followed a night of very intense bombing on the southern suburbs of Beirut, devastated and deserted by its residents.
According to the American site Axios, which cites Israeli officials, Hachem Safieddine, potential successor to Hassan Nasrallah at the head of Hezbollah, would have been targeted by these bombings. The Israeli military has not confirmed.
Five buildings were destroyed in the raids and Hezbollah banned access to the site, according to an AFP photographer. One of the strikes left a huge crater.
PHOTO AHMAD AL-KERDI, REUTERS
A Hezbollah flag flies in front of a building damaged in Israeli strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, October 4, 2024.
As men cleared the rubble, an Israeli drone struck the area, a source close to Hezbollah said.
AFP photographers saw at least three injured. AFP images showed giant balls of flame rising from the area, with thick smoke and flares.
“The ground shook beneath our feet. The sky lit up,” said Mohammed Sheaito, a 31-year-old taxi driver, commenting on the strikes.
According to a source close to Hezbollah, Nasrallah was “temporarily” buried.
A plane chartered by the WHO (World Health Organization) carrying thirty tons of medical aid landed in Beirut on Friday, the first aid from the UN since the start of intensive Israeli bombing in Lebanon on September 23, announced the UN agency.
PHOTO IBRAHIM AMRO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The first delivery of humanitarian aid from the WHO since the start of the Israeli bombing campaign on September 23 arrived in Lebanon on Friday.
The plane, coming from Dubai, “landed this morning with thirty tons of surgical equipment, enough to treat tens of thousands of people,” Hanan Balkhy, WHO regional director, said on X. “More planes are expected to arrive today and tomorrow,” she added.
According to the Lebanese authorities, this is the first delivery of humanitarian aid from the UN agency since the start of the Israeli bombing campaign on September 23.
Khamenei’s preaching
In Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rifle at his side, began a sermon at the weekly prayer, an intervention that could set the tone for the plans of Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy.
On Tuesday, Iran fired nearly 200 missiles into Israeli territory, saying it was responding to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah and that of Ismaïl Haniyeh, the Hamas leader killed on July 31 in an attack in Tehran blamed on Israel.
PHOTO ALI ALLOUSH, REUTERS
People stand near a damaged building, following Israeli strikes on the Mreijeh neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
These strikes led to threats of reprisals between Israel and Iran and accentuated fears of a conflagration in the Middle East.
“We can avoid” a “total war” in the Middle East, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday.
He said he was “in discussions” with Israel about possible strikes against the oil installations of Iran, a country which is one of the ten largest oil producers. Oil prices jumped after this statement.
18 dead in the West Bank
In mid-September, Israel announced that it was moving most of its operations to the northern front, against Hezbollah in Lebanon, after having weakened Hamas in Gaza, reduced to a guerrilla, during a devastating offensive which continues in the territory. Palestinian under siege.
The Israeli army said it would continue to inflict “severe blows” on Hezbollah, in order to allow the return of around 60,000 border region residents displaced by the Lebanese movement’s incessant rocket fire towards northern Israel. .
According to an AFP report based on official figures, nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, including at least 1,110 since September 23. The Lebanese government estimates the number of displaced people at around 1.2 million.
In the West Bank, 18 Palestinians died in an Israeli strike on Tulkarem, the deadliest raid since 2000 in this Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, according to Palestinian sources. Israel claimed to have “eliminated” a local Hamas leader, Zahi abd al-Razaq.
