2024-09-29 12:14:21
The situation in the Middle East is highly explosive following the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah by Israel’s army. All developments in the news blog.
1:37 p.m.: According to reports there, at least 17 members of a family were killed in an Israeli air strike in eastern Lebanon. This was reported by the state news agency NNA. The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar television station reported 15 deaths, including women and children. The attacks took place in the Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah is very active.
11:59 a.m.: Israel has killed Nabil Kauk, commander of Hezbollah’s security division, in a targeted airstrike, according to a military spokesman. Kauk had belonged to the militia since the 1980s and was a member of the organization’s central council, it said. The Israeli military will continue to target Hezbollah commanders and “eliminate them,” according to the army statement.
11 a.m.: Hashim Safi al-Din is considered the most promising candidate for the position at the top of Hezbollah. The Shiite cleric has positioned himself strategically within the terrorist group and has family ties to the slain boss and to Iran. You can read everything about Safi al-Din here.
6:33 a.m.: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns Iran against an attack on his country. “I say to the Ayatollah regime: whoever attacks us, we attack,” Netanyahu told media representatives in Tel Aviv. “There is no place in Iran or the Middle East that Israel’s long arm cannot reach,” Netanyahu threatened.
5:53 a.m.: The Israeli army has again attacked Hezbollah militia positions in Lebanon. As the army reports, the air force has attacked dozens of targets in the neighboring country to the north in the past few hours. These included launch pads that were aimed at Israeli territory, weapons depots and other “terrorist infrastructure” of the pro-Iranian Shiite militia. Meanwhile, there was another rocket alarm in northern Israel during the night, the army announced.
2:22 a.m.: Following the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, Iran has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. Tehran is protesting against Israel’s killing of Nasrallah, the committee said in a letter on Saturday (local time). In the letter, Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Irawani calls on the Security Council to “take immediate and decisive action to stop Israel’s continued aggression and prevent the region from being drawn into an all-out war.” Israel committed a “blatant act of terrorist aggression against residential areas in Beirut by using US-supplied thousand-pound bunker busters,” it said.
12:10 a.m.: In view of the further escalation in the Middle East, the Federal Government has decided to evacuate family members of diplomatic staff from Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. As the Foreign Office announced on Saturday, this was decided by the federal government’s crisis team. The family members of the employees sent to Beirut, Ramallah and Tel Aviv would be taken to safe places in the region or to Germany.
In view of the “current development of the situation”, it was decided to further raise the crisis level for the affected foreign missions, the Foreign Ministry announced. The diplomatic staff there will also be reduced. However, care will be taken to ensure the “comprehensive working capacity” of the three foreign missions.
11:05 p.m.: Israeli attacks are reported from Syria. According to reports that have not yet been officially confirmed, air defenses have been activated in Homs. Images purportedly showing Syrian defense missiles were shared on social networks. Explosions could be heard on videos. The Sky News Arabia channel reports on an Israeli drone that was seen near Damascus. Israeli fighter jets are said to have destroyed a house near the city that was used by the terrorist organization Hezbollah, it said.