Israeli aircraft attacked southern Lebanon on Saturday, raising fears of an all-out war, a day after a bombing that killed 37 people, including senior Hezbollah officials, in a Beirut suburb.
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Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has cancelled his participation in the UN General Assembly in New York, citing what he said were “horrible Israeli massacres” in Lebanon.
The pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah, a powerful political and military player in Lebanon, opened a front on the border with Israel almost a year ago, after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, in support of its Islamist ally Hamas.
In conflict-ravaged Gaza, the Civil Defense announced Saturday that at least 21 people had been killed in an Israeli bombing of a school where displaced people were sheltering but which, according to the Israeli army, was serving as a base for “terrorists.”
In northern Israel, on the border with Lebanon, tensions have risen and exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, which have been a daily occurrence since the start of the war in Gaza almost a year ago, have intensified.
Israel on Saturday launched fresh airstrikes against southern Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah, saying it had attacked “thousands of rocket launching pads” “ready to be used” to fire on its territory.
In the evening, it announced new attacks against “targets of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in Lebanon”, without giving further details. For its part, the Lebanese movement said it had fired dozens of rockets against military positions in northern Israel, “around 90” according to the Israeli army.
Hezbollah’s elite force
Friday’s bombing south of the Lebanese capital left a huge crater and hit a densely populated area. The death toll, which is 37, including three children, could rise as the rubble of the destroyed building is still being cleared, according to the Ministry of Health.
“We were at home when we heard a loud bang. We thought war had broken out,” Zeinab, a 35-year-old housewife who asked to be identified only by her first name, told AFP.
A source close to Hezbollah said the attack targeted its elite force, the Radwan unit, which was holding a meeting in a basement, adding that 16 of its members were killed.
Hezbollah said the dead included Ibrahim Aqil, the unit’s chief, as well as Ahmed Mahmud Wahbi, who was in charge of military operations until the beginning of the year.
The United States has offered a $7 million reward for information on Ibrahim Aqil, considered a “senior member” of the organisation that claimed responsibility for the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut that left 63 people dead.
This is the third bombing in the southern suburb of Beirut claimed or attributed to Israel since the start of the war in Gaza. The UN declared itself “very concerned” by the situation and called on “all parties to immediately de-escalate” and “show maximum restraint.”
Friday’s operation followed two waves of explosions involving beepers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah militants that killed 39 people and wounded nearly 3,000 in the militant group’s strongholds in Lebanon between Tuesday and Wednesday, officials said.
Israel has not commented on the attacks, which occurred mainly in the southern outskirts of Beirut, as well as in southern and eastern Lebanon, three strongholds of Hezbollah. The leader of the Islamist group, Hassan Nasrallah, nevertheless blamed it for the explosions and promised a “just punishment.”
Bombing of school housing refugees
Following Friday’s bombing near Beirut, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the attack was not intended to provoke “a broad escalation in the region.”
Until now, Israel’s main objectives have been the destruction of Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007, and the return of hostages still held in Palestinian territory.
The Gaza war broke out on October 7, 2023, when Islamist fighters killed 1,205 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data, which includes hostages killed or killed while in captivity in Gaza.
Of the 251 abducted during the Islamist incursion, 97 are still held in Gaza, although 33 of them were declared dead by the Israeli army. The Israeli offensive in response to that incursion has killed at least 41,391 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to data from the territory’s Ministry of Health, which the UN considers reliable.
In Gaza City, in the north, the Civil Defence said that a bombing of the Al Zaytun C school, which was hosting thousands of displaced people, killed “21 people, including 13 children and six women”, one of whom was pregnant. The Israeli army said it had “carried out a bombing targeting terrorists operating inside a Hamas command and control centre in Gaza City”.
AFP AGENCY
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