Politics Another heavy Israeli airstrike in Beirut
The Lebanese capital Beirut was once again the target of massive airstrikes by the Israeli military during the night.
04.10.2024, 05:22
SDA
A reporter for the German Press Agency reported heavy explosions. According to unconfirmed reports, the attack was aimed at Hashim Safi al-Din, the head of the executive council of the Hezbollah militia. He is considered the most promising candidate to succeed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was recently killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. The Israeli army initially provided no information on the renewed attacks in Beirut.
According to Lebanese security circles, the attacks once again took place in the southern suburbs, which are mainly controlled by Hezbollah. Video footage showed detonations over the city, huge flames and clouds of smoke rising into the night sky. Israel's military had ordered the residents of certain buildings in the southern suburbs to evacuate in Arabic. The attacks occurred while Israel's troops and tanks were simultaneously fighting against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Israel's declared aim is to drive the pro-Iranian Shiite militia from the border so that around 60,000 evacuated Israelis can return to their homes.
Pentagon: Consultation with Israel on response to Iran's attack
Meanwhile, the US government is continuing to discuss a response to the recent Iranian missile attack with Israel. "We are discussing with them what a response to Iran might look like. But going into details here about what possible targets might look like, I don't think is useful or really helpful," said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh when asked if Iranian oil facilities were a possible target. US President Joe Biden had said that the US was discussing its stance on a possible Israeli attack on Iranian oil facilities. The statement immediately led to uncertainty on the markets.
The second day of the Jewish New Year is being celebrated in Israel today. After Iran's missile attacks in April, five days had passed before the Israeli counter-attack. Meanwhile, the Islamist Hamas has called for worldwide solidarity demonstrations from today until the first anniversary of the start of the Gaza war on October 7.
On October 7, 2023, terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took around 250 others hostage in the Gaza Strip. This was the trigger for the Gaza War. Since then, the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon has been attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, according to its own statements. Warning sirens sounded again during the night in northern Israel, as the army announced. A flying object that had entered Israeli territory from the east had been intercepted.
Many dead in Israeli air strike in the West Bank
Meanwhile, Israel's military is also stepping up action against its enemies in the occupied West Bank. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, at least 18 people were killed in an attack by an Israeli fighter jet on a café in the town of Tulkarm in the north of the West Bank. The number of injured was initially unclear. It was the first air strike of its kind in the West Bank for years. According to the Israeli army, it was aimed at the head of the Islamist Hamas in Tulkarm, Sahi Jasser Abd al-Rasegh Ufi. According to Palestinian media, the leader of the local branch of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, Gaith Radwan, was killed in the airstrike.
Israeli army calls on people in Lebanon to flee
As part of its ground offensive in Lebanon, the Israeli military has called on people in dozens of locations in the south of the country to flee. According to the statement, people should seek safety about 60 kilometers beyond the border. The aim of the ground offensive so far has been to destroy tunnels and weapons that Hezbollah had prepared near the border for a possible attack on Israel, the "Wall Street Journal" quoted several Israeli officials informed about the operation. According to them, the military had no intention of turning the invasion into a large-scale land war in Lebanon. According to the army, nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting so far.
Israel: 230 rockets fired from Lebanon into the north
At the same time, Israel was once again massively bombarded with rockets from Lebanon. Within one day, around 230 missiles and several drones had been fired by the Shiite militia Hezbollah at northern Israel, the Israeli army announced in the evening. The previous day, 140 such attacks had been reported. In many towns in Israel, the air-raid sirens continued to wail. Some of the shells were intercepted, others fell over uninhabited areas, it was reported. There was initially no information about possible casualties or major damage.
The Washington Post quoted a retired Lebanese army general as saying that although Hezbollah had been weakened by the recent massive attacks by the Israeli army, it had retained its capabilities as a guerrilla fighting force in the south of the country. "Hezbollah hopes that the Israelis will penetrate deeper into Lebanon," he said. "The air war the Israelis have waged has been very successful. If they stay on the ground, Hezbollah will get the war it wants," Hussein Ibish of the Arab Gulf States Institute, a think tank in Washington, told The Wall Street Journal.
Expert: Israel's approach in Lebanon resembles Gaza tactics
Instead of repeating the experience of previous ground offensives in southern Lebanon in 1978 and 2006, which did not bring Israel lasting security gains, Israel's current war in Lebanon is more similar to its actions against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Sanam Vakil, head of the Middle East program at the London-based think tank Chatham House, told the US newspaper. "I assume that, as in Gaza, they will use the threat of a long-term presence as a negotiating tool," Vakil said.
Hezbollah has so far resisted all Israeli pressure to decouple its rocket fire from the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It does not want to stop its attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza. However, months of efforts by the USA, Qatar and Egypt to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip have come to nothing. The USA, as Israel's most important ally, defended Israel's recent attacks in Lebanon.
USA defends Israel's actions in Lebanon
"Nothing we've seen so far leads us to conclude that they're doing anything other than attacking a terrorist organization," said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. When asked by journalists whether Washington tacitly approves of Israel's actions in Lebanon in view of the danger to the civilian population, Miller replied: "It's not that we approve of individual attacks. But we do approve of the Israeli government's right to defend itself against a terrorist organization."
