Intense Israeli aerial bombardment hit the southern suburbs of Beirut this Wednesday afternoon, a Hezbollah stronghold, the target of ten attacks that destroyed several buildings, according to the Lebanese agency, and caused a huge explosion.
According to the Lebanese news agency Ani, these are the most important attacks in this area since the start of the war between Israel and the pro-Iranian Islamist movement Hezbollah a month ago.
A few hours earlier, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, on tour in the Middle East, had asked Israel, at war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and against Hezbollah in Lebanon, to avoid an escalation with Iran, which supports the Two Islamist movements.
The Ani agency announced on Wednesday afternoon that ten Israeli strikes had hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, following an Israeli call for residents to evacuate several areas.
According to Ani, six buildings were destroyed in the Laylaki district alone, while the pro-Iran channel Al-Mayadeen claimed that one of its offices in a southern district of Beirut had been attacked.
In the morning, Israel bombed Tyre, in southern Lebanon, forcing some of the inhabitants of this coastal city to flee, an ancient Phoenician and Roman city with a rich archaeological heritage, whose streets were razed.
“The whole city shook,” said Rana, a resident who declined to give her last name, as the attacks reached “the heart of Tyre.”
Antony Blinken’s visit to the region is the eleventh since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, which spread to Lebanon in September while all attempts at international mediation for a ceasefire have failed.
“War against Iran”
Antony Blinken considered on Wednesday that the “time” had come to end the war in Gaza, sparked by the unprecedented attack carried out by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to him, Israel has achieved “most of its strategic objectives” in the Palestinian territory, “with the idea of ensuring that October 7 never happens again.”
Following this attack, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007.
On Tuesday, the Secretary of State estimated that the death of Yahya Sinouar, a Hamas leader killed by Israeli soldiers on October 16, offered an “important opportunity to bring home the hostages” held in Gaza and “end the war “.
However, a security source said on Wednesday that the Israeli military was prepared for more “months of fighting” in Gaza and Lebanon. Israel is not waging “a war against Gaza or another war against Lebanon,” but “a war against Iran, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly, through Iran’s allies,” this source added.
Antony Blinken considered “very important that Israel responds in a way that does not generate a further escalation”, while Iran says it is determined to retaliate in the event of an Israeli attack after the firing of 200 Iranian missiles against its territory on October 1. .
“Another winter at war”
In the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization postponed a vaccination campaign against polio that was to begin in the north of the territory, where the Israeli army has been leading a new offensive against Hamas since October 6.
The Israeli offensive launched in Gaza in retaliation for the October 7, 2023 attack killed at least 42,792 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, considered reliable by the UN.
The war has caused the displacement of almost all of the territory’s 2.4 million inhabitants, who are preparing to live a second winter subject to increasing shortages.
“We did not expect to live another winter of war,” Abou al-Jabeen, a 32-year-old woman who lives in an overcrowded camp in Nousseirat, in the center of the territory, told Salah on Wednesday.
“We need to replace the tents because they were damaged by the sun this summer,” “we also need blankets and clothing,” he added.
In Israel, the Hamas attack killed 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or died in captivity.
Of the 251 people kidnapped then, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.
“On the verge of collapse”
In Lebanon, the Israeli army on Wednesday continued its ground operations in the south, begun on September 30, where Hezbollah said it had thwarted an infiltration attempt by Israeli soldiers.
Israel says it wants to neutralize Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, bordering its territory, and allow the return to northern Israel of 60,000 residents displaced by incessant rocket fire for a year.
Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had fired rockets at a military base and a military industrial site near Tel Aviv, the main city in the center of the country, and had attacked two other military bases near Haifa in the north.
Hezbollah confirmed on Wednesday the death in an Israeli attack of Hachem Safieddine, the expected successor at the head of Hassan Nasrallah’s Shiite movement, assassinated in the southern suburbs of Beirut on September 27.
At least 1,552 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the Israeli airstrike campaign on September 23, according to an AFP tally based on official data. The UN has registered some 800,000 displaced people.
“Lebanon is on the verge of collapse,” warned the head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, in Beirut.
Source: BFM TV
