2024-10-02 05:27:18
“More than 20 other terrorists” from the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah were killed in Friday’s powerful strike on the organization’s headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which killed its leader Hassan Nasrallah, AFP reported, citing a statement from the Israel Defense Forces. (IDF).
“More than 20 other terrorists of various ranks who were located in the underground headquarters in Beirut, located under civilian buildings, and who directed Hezbollah’s terrorist operations against the State of Israel, were also eliminated,” according to the statement, which give details of some of them.
Besides Nasrallah and fellow commander-in-chief Ali Karaki, among those killed in the bombing of the central headquarters of the Lebanese Armed Islamist Movement were Ibrahim Hussein Jazini, Samir Tawfiq Dib, Abed al-Amir Mohammed Sablini and Ali Naaf Ayub, the statement said. Jazini and Dib were “among Nasrallah’s closest associates.”
“Because of their closeness to him, they played an important role in the day-to-day operations of Hezbollah and especially Nasrallah himself,” according to the same source.
In recent days, Israel has shifted its military operations to the northern front after long focusing on the Gaza Strip, where it has been fighting the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas since October 7, the day of the unprecedented attack on Israeli soil. Claiming to be acting in support of Hamas, Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on October 8. More than 11 months of deadly cross-border clashes between the military wing of the Shiite movement and the Israeli army have displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Reuters reports that in an Israeli strike against the Bekaa Valley, Mohammad Dahrouj, a leading figure in the Sunni organization “Jamaa Islamia”, was killed. The group has been firing rockets at Israel for the past year, and the country has already cracked down on its leaders.
The information was obtained from two sources in the security forces.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barot is expected to arrive in Lebanon this evening, AFP reported, citing a statement from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He will talk to local authorities and provide French aid, especially humanitarian aid, according to the same source.
According to the official program of his visit, he will provide urgently needed sanitary materials to the Lebanese Minister of Health before going to a working meeting dedicated to the situation of French citizens in Lebanon.
Yesterday, Paris called for an immediate end to Israeli strikes against Lebanon and opposed a possible ground operation in the country.