After the Lebanese armed group Hizbullah hacked the communication device pager and Walkie Talkie and detonated it, this time Israel carried out an airstrike in the southern part of the country’s capital, Beirut. At least 12 people including five children have been killed so far. In addition, at least 66 others were injured, eight of whom are in serious condition, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Israel carried out two F-35 strikes on a residential building in the Dahiye area of southern Beirut on Friday afternoon.
After the airstrike, a senior Israeli official told Israel Army Radio that the strike targeted Ibrahim Aqeel, Hezbollah’s top military commander. However, he did not clarify whether the assassination attempt was successful.
Meanwhile, in response to the attack, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said, “This airstrike proves once again that the Israeli enemy does not care about any humanitarian, legal or moral considerations and that this is definitely a genocide.”
Earlier on Thursday, Israel carried out massive airstrikes on specific targets in Mahmudih, Qasr al-Arush and Birket Jabbour areas of Jejin city in southern Lebanon.
Israel’s military said the country’s air force has attacked about 100 rocket-launchers and other infrastructure in Lebanon. However, the casualties in the attack could not be confirmed immediately.
Three sources in the Lebanese security forces, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Israel carried out the largest airstrikes in Lebanon since the start of the Gaza war on Thursday.
In addition, last Tuesday and Wednesday, Hezbollah’s wireless communication device Pager and Walkie-talkie exploded in Lebanon and Syria. At least 37 people were killed and about 3000 people were injured in the explosion.
The Lebanese government and Hezbollah say that Israel has planned these explosions. However, Israel has not yet opened its mouth about these explosions.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah spoke on Thursday after two days of blasts. “Operations against Israel will continue until the Gaza war ends,” he said, noting that Israel had violated “all limits” with the series of blasts.
Incidentally, since the day after the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah has been firing rockets and missiles into Israeli territory almost every day from the southern border of Lebanon in solidarity with the Palestinian independence armed group Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are also retaliating from the border.
About 600 people, including civilians, have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli attacks for nearly 11 months, AFP news agency confirmed. Hezbollah counterattacks killed at least 15 Israeli soldiers and 11 Israeli civilians. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from both sides of the Lebanon-Israel border in the last 11 months due to the war between the two sides.
On the other hand, Israel killed Fuad Shukar, the top commander of Hezbollah in Beirut last month. Since then, the powerful Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah has announced retaliation against Israel. As a result, Western countries, including the United States, fear that the recent tension between Israel and Hezbollah may turn into a major conflict. In this situation, the fear of a full-scale war in the Middle East has increased.
Source: Aljazeera, Anadolu
(Dhaka Times/21 September/MR)
Source: www.dhakatimes24.com
