Hezbollah targets Israeli base to avenge Lebanon killings

By: AFP
Published: 06:12 PM, 10 Jan, 2024
Hezbollah targets Israeli base to avenge Lebanon killings
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Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it targeted a command base in northern Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for the killings of one of its commanders and a Hamas leader.


Hezbollah said the attack was part of its response to the killings of top field commander Wissam Tawil on Monday and Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri on January 2.


The Shiite Muslim movement, a Hamas ally, said in a statement that it had targeted the "enemy's northern command centre" in the Israeli city of Safed with "several suicide drones".


The Israeli military confirmed that a "hostile aircraft" had crashed at one of its bases in the north, and said that "no injuries or damage were reported".


Hezbollah and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.


Tawil -- the highest-ranking Hezbollah member to be killed since October 7 -- was buried in his south Lebanon home village of Khirbit Silm on Tuesday.


Hundreds of Hezbollah supporters attended the funeral procession in which the group's yellow flag was draped over his coffin.



The Hezbollah statement said Tawil was involved in the abduction of Israeli soldiers which triggered its war with Israel in 2006, and that he also took part in noteworthy operations in Syria.


He had also "directed numerous operations" against Israeli forces since the Gaza war began, Hezbollah said.


The group's number two Naim Qassem, in a speech on Tuesday, described Tawil as a member of Hezbollah's elite al-Radwan Brigade who had fought on several fronts.


He warned that Israel's wave of targeted killings "cannot lead to a phase of retreat but rather to a push forward for the resistance".


Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli strike targeted a car in the south Lebanon village of Ghandouria, the country's National News Agency (NNA) said.


The strike left "three Hezbollah fighters dead" a security source told AFP, requesting anonymity for security reasons.


Shortly before Tawil's procession began, Israel struck a car parked in Khirbit Silm, according to the NNA and eyewitnesses.


Hezbollah later said four of its fighters had been killed.



- Escalating tensions -


In a statement on Tuesday evening, Israel's army said it had "eliminated" Ali Burji, one of the four slain Hezbollah fighters.


It described him as "the commander of the southern Lebanon region of Hezbollah's aerial unit" who was responsible for the attack on the Israeli base earlier in the day.


Hezbollah did not name Burji as a commander in his death notice, with a source close to the group telling AFP he was "absolutely not" the commander of its aerial unit or the man behind Tuesday's attack.


Hezbollah later denied Israel's claim in a statement, adding that the commander "in charge of Hezbollah's drone unit has not been the target of any assassination attempt like the enemy claimed".


On Saturday, Hezbollah said it had fired more than 60 rockets at an Israeli military base in response to Hamas deputy leader Aruri's killing in Beirut which was widely blamed on Israel.


Aruri, the most high-profile Hamas figure to be killed during the Gaza war, was killed in Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold in the first strike on the Lebanese capital since hostilities began.



Escalating tensions have prompted a succession of Western diplomats to converge on Beirut to urge restraint and discuss potential solutions -- including land border talks.


In a meeting on Tuesday with UN chief of peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his country was "ready for talks to achieve long-term stability in south Lebanon".


The three months of cross-border violence have killed more than 185 people in Lebanon, including 140 Hezbollah fighters and more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally.


In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.



Palestinian journalist freed from Israeli custody abused


London-based media outlet The New Arab announced on Tuesday the release of one of its Palestinian journalists from Israeli custody, alleging he faced torture during more than a month in detention.


Diaa al-Kahlout, who was among dozens of Palestinians shown detained by Israeli troops and stripped to their underwear in north Gaza last month, had been released back into the Palestinian territory, the Qatari-owned outlet said.


In a report on its website, Kahlout told The New Arab he had faced "indescribably tough and difficult" conditions following his arrest.


The 37-year-old said he had been beaten and tortured. "The moment I was detained, Israeli soldiers crowded round me... before they gagged me with tape so I couldn't speak."


Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said following his arrest the journalist was briefly held in Eshel prison in Israel and was subjected to torture, according to several of the organisation's sources.


The bloodiest ever Gaza war broke out after Hamas gunmen launched their October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.



Fighters of Hamas, considered a "terrorist" group by the United States and European Union, also took around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 of them remain captive, including at least 25 believed to have been killed.


Israel has responded to the deadliest attack in its history with relentless bombardment, a siege and then a ground invasion of Gaza that have killed at least 23,210 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.


Footage of the men, including Kahlout, stripped down to their underwear, with some of them appearing to hand over weapons, was last month aired by Israeli media, which reported the alleged surrender of Hamas militants.


The clips sparked outrage on social media, with Hamas denying the individuals were members of its armed wing.


The Israeli army said it often strips people that it deems could pose a threat to ensure they do not carry arms or explosives.


RSF has said Israel has arrested a total of 38 Palestinian journalists since October 7 and is currently holding 31.


"This intimidation, this terror, these endless attempts to silence Palestinian journalism, whether by chains, bullets or bombs, must stop," said Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF's Middle East desk. "We call for the immediate release of all detained journalists and for their urgent protection," he added.


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Blinken tells Israel civilian toll in Gaza 'far too high'


Top US diplomat Antony Blinken told Israel Tuesday the toll on Gazan civilians caused by its war against Hamas was "far too high", urging his ally to alleviate their suffering.


More than three months into the deadliest ever Gaza war, Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on his fourth round of Middle East crisis diplomacy since the conflict broke out.


Blinken reaffirmed US "support for Israel's right to prevent" a repetition of the unprecedented Hamas attacks of October 7 that sparked the war, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.


But Blinken also "stressed the importance of avoiding further civilian harm and protecting civilian infrastructure in Gaza", said Miller of the Hamas-run territory where a humanitarian crisis is deepening and local health officials have reported more than 23,000 deaths.



Blinken later told a news conference that the "daily toll on civilians in Gaza, particularly children, is far too high", and said more food, water and medicine were needed.


Israel has agreed to a UN assessment mission in northern Gaza that would "determine what needs to be done to allow displaced Palestinians to return safely", he said.


Miller said that for the longer term, Blinken in his discussions with Netanyahu "reiterated the need to ensure lasting, sustainable peace for Israel and the region, including by the realisation of a Palestinian state".


Israel "must stop taking steps that undercut Palestinians' ability to govern themselves effectively", Blinken said during the news conference.


An AFP correspondent reported intense strikes overnight in Khan Yunis and Rafah, the biggest cities in the south of Gaza which are crowded with internally displaced people.


Israel's army said its forces had killed 40 militants over the past 24 hours in "expanded ground operations including air strikes" in Khan Yunis, and that troops had seized AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers and other weapons.


"We lost all of our dreams," said Hadeel Shehata, a 23-year-old displaced Palestinian living in a tent at a Rafah refugee camp.


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- Ceasefire calls -


The Gaza war began after Hamas gunmen launched their unprecedented October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.


Militants of Hamas, considered a "terrorist" group by the United States and European Union, also took around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 of them remain captive, including at least 25 believed to have been killed.


Israel has responded with relentless bombardment and a ground invasion of Gaza that have killed at least 23,210 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.



The Israeli army says its death toll inside Gaza had risen to 185 after nine soldiers were killed on Monday.


"There has to be a ceasefire, for the hostages, the civilians... all the hundreds and hundreds of innocent people," Marie-Pascale Radoux, whose Franco-Mexican son Orion is believed held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, told AFP in France.


"There are no words to explain what you feel... from anger to sadness, anxiety, fear, nightmares."


Jordan's royal palace said King Abdullah II would host Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday for talks on Gaza.


These would be part of Jordanian efforts to "push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and ensure the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid", it said.



- 'Heavy price' -


Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, speaking in Qatar on Tuesday, said the October 7 attack "came after an attempt to marginalise the Palestinian cause".


"Despite the heavy price, the massacres and the war of genocide, it (Israel) failed to achieve any of its goals."


In further comments, released later by Hamas in Gaza, Haniyeh called on Muslim states "to support the resistance with weapons, because this is... not the battle of the Palestinian people alone".


The war has displaced most of Gaza's 2.4 million people, and the United Nations says many are at risk of famine and disease.


The World Health Organization said its ability to provide aid and support Gazan hospitals was "shrinking".


With only minimal aid entering Gaza, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem charged that "everyone in Gaza is going hungry" as the "direct results of Israel's declared policy".



Israel's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by international media organisations to allow independent access for journalists to Gaza, saying entry restrictions were justified on security grounds.


Since the war started, fears have grown of an escalating conflict between Israel and its other regional enemies, a loose alliance of Iran-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.


Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told Blinken on Tuesday that intensifying pressure on Iran was "critical" and may prevent a regional escalation, an Israeli government statement said.


Israel has traded cross-border fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah for three months, and more recently killed senior operatives of the Shiite Muslim militant group as well as of Hamas on Lebanese soil.


Hezbollah on Tuesday announced four of its fighters had been killed.


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- War entering 'new phase' -


As the ground offensive continues, Israel has said it has largely achieved military control over northern Gaza and that the war is entering a new phase.


Army spokesman Daniel Hagari, speaking to The New York Times, said this would involve fewer soldiers and air strikes and that a troop reduction had already begun this month.


Violence has also surged in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli police confirmed three people were killed Monday during a raid on the city of Tulkarem to arrest a "wanted terrorist".


Israeli army raids and settler attacks in the West Bank have killed at least 333 people since October 7, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry.


Categories : World

AFP

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