He The Israeli Army continued bombing the south and east of Lebanon this Sunday, a day after the death of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was confirmed; in addition to expand the radius of its fight in the Middle East with a new bombing against the Yemeni port city of Al Hodeida, causing the death of at least four people and wounding another 40, according to a preliminary report.
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The “large-scale” Israeli bombings in Yemen came a day after Shiite insurgents launched a ballistic missile at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to land from his trip to the Assembly. of the UN, in New York. The projectile was intercepted outside Israel’s borders.
The Army of the Hebrew country stated in a statement that dozens of aircraft, including fighters, attacked “military objectives” of the Houthis in the areas of Ras Issa and Al Hodeida on Sunday, with the aim of damaging or destroying “power plants and the port.” maritime, used to import oil.”
Israel is “determined to continue acting and harming anyone who poses a threat to the citizens of Israel and at whatever distance is necessary,” the text charged, referring to the 1,800 kilometers that separate Israel from Yemen.
Israel is determined to continue acting and harming anyone who poses a threat to the citizens of Israel.
The Chief of the Army General Staff, Herzi Halevi, also warned that the “large-scale” attack is an example of how far they can go with their bombings.. “We know how to go even further, and we know how to attack with precision. This is not a message, it is an action,” he asserted.
It is not the first time that Israel attacks Yemen. Last July it launched an action against the port of Al Hodeida, in which it killed at least six civilians and hit more than two dozen oil storage tanks, as well as a power plant. The Houthis have been attacking ships linked to Israel in the Red Sea since last November, and continue launching projectiles against their territory without the escalation of war in Lebanon seeming to intimidate them.
Critical balance of the bombings in Lebanon
On the Lebanese side, more than 100 people were killed and another 359 were injured this Sunday in bombings by Israeli aircraft in the south and east of the country. Journalists in the area heard a loud explosion and saw columns of smoke rising from the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, where the group’s head Hassan Nasrallah died on Friday.
At the same time, An Israeli bombing hit a residential building in the Cola neighborhood of Beirut at dawn, in the first air attack against the center of the Lebanese capital since the start of hostilities.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati indicated this Sunday that close to a million people could have been displaced by the attacks. that Israel began a week ago in what would be “the largest population displacement in the history” of the country.
Hundreds of shelters for the displaced have already reached capacity amid reports of insufficient aid for fleeing families. According to the latest situation report published by the presidency of the Council of Ministers, 116,100 internally displaced people are housed in 777 centers and schools authorized by the authorities, of which more than 500 reached their maximum capacity.
In attacks, Israel ended most of Hezbollah’s top military. Following Nasrallah’s death, Israel confirmed this Sunday that it killed Nabil Qaouk, commander of the Preventive Security Unit of the Lebanese Shiite group.
In addition, he announced that along with Nasrallah and his southern front commander, Ali Karaki, more than 20 members “of various ranks” died in Friday’s massive bombing in the suburbs of Beirut.
Now, Hezbollah must decide between giving an unprecedented response against Israel, or not doing so and assuming “total defeat.” “If Hezbollah does not respond with its arsenal of long-range precision missiles, then it follows that it is not capable of doing so,” says Heiko Wimmen, a region specialist at the International Crisis Group.
The group also began taking steps this Sunday to replace Nasrallah. The Arab media Al Arabiya stated that the head of the Executive Council of the Lebanese Shiite group, the cleric Hashem Safi al Din, was elected as the general secretary of the political and armed movement of the organization, although the information was not officially confirmed by Hezbollah.
Safi al Din, Nasrallah’s maternal cousin, was born in 1964 in southern Lebanon and has been close to the group’s leadership since 1995 as a member of the formation’s Shura Council (advisory body).
He completed his Islamic studies in the holy cities of Najaf (Iraq) and Qom (Iran), where the main schools are located for anyone who aspires to become a Grand Ayatollah (one of the highest titles among Islamic Shiites).
Like most of the senior officials of Hezbollah – an organization considered terrorist by Israel and the United States, but not by the European Union, which only considers its armed wing terrorist -, in 2017 Safi al Din was designated a terrorist by the US Government for being “a key member” of the group, according to a note published at the time by the State Department.
Meanwhile, diplomatic moves continue to try to stop a total escalation in the Middle East.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot landed in Lebanon on Sunday to “meet with local authorities”, while President Joe Biden stated that a total conflict “must be avoided” and that he will speak with the prime minister soon. Israeli, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Agencies/AFP and Efe/Beirut
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