The Israeli army announced new air strikes against Hezbollah sites in Lebanon on Saturday, a day after a raid targeting Hezbollah leaders near the capital Beirut.
“The Israeli army is currently bombing Hezbollah sites in Lebanon,” the statement said, adding that “at least 16 Hezbollah fighters were killed in a raid on Friday in the southern suburbs of Beirut.”
Lebanese media reported on Saturday that “Israeli aircraft carried out an air aggression targeting, with a series of raids, the heights of Jabal al-Rayhan, the outskirts of Mahmoudiyah, Wadi Barghaz, the Litani River, and Labaya, reaching the outskirts of Western Bekaa.” It noted that “the sound of explosions was heard in distant areas in the south.”
Earlier today, Saturday, the Israeli army announced the closure of airspace in the northern regions for 24 hours due to tensions with Lebanon following the assassination on Friday of a prominent military leader in Hezbollah in a raid on Beirut.
“Due to the security situation, the Israeli army has decided to close the airspace from Hadera towards the north for 24 hours,” the official broadcaster said, adding that “only authorized flights will be allowed.”
She explained that the army’s decision comes “in order to reduce the risk of the air defense system mistakenly identifying Israeli aircraft as hostile and then intercepting them.”
Meanwhile, US officials expect the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah to escalate significantly in the coming days, potentially leading to a “full-scale war between the two sides,” which the United States has long sought to avoid.
Officials told Politico that Israel and Hezbollah “want to avoid all-out war,” but tensions have reached an all-time high following successive Israeli attacks on Hezbollah.
The US concerns come after the bombings of pagers widely used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon, which killed dozens and injured about 3,000 others.
The group and the Lebanese state accused Israel of being behind the attack, but the latter has not commented on it yet.
Israel also launched a raid on the southern suburb of Beirut on Friday, which resulted in the killing of leaders of Hezbollah’s Radwan unit, headed by Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that at least 31 people were killed in the Israeli air strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday, including 3 children and 7 women, in the most violent strike during this year-long conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.
The party confirmed last night that leaders Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi were among 16 of its members killed.
“Warplanes carried out a precise raid in the Beirut area, under intelligence guidance from the Military Intelligence Service, and eliminated Ibrahim Aqil, the head of Hezbollah’s operations system and the de facto commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force,” the Israeli military said in a statement on Friday. In another statement, it added that “around 10 officials from Hezbollah’s Radwan Force were eliminated along with Aqil.”
After the raid, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant threatened his country’s “enemies” that they would find “no refuge… even in the Beirut suburb.”
Last updated: September 21, 2024 – 16:03
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2024-09-22 07:43:24