The Israeli War in Gaza: Report of the Hamas-Leading Attacks on a High-Density Building
On Friday, an Israeli airstrike took down an eight-story building in a densely populated neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs as Hezbollah members were meeting in the basement, according to Israel. Among those killed was Ibrahim Akil, a top Hezbollah official who commanded the group’s special forces unit, known as the Radwan Force.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel last Oct. 7, Israel has conducted a series of assassinations of commanders of Iran’s regional proxy forces, including Hamas and Hezbollah.
The attacks came at the same time that Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza, which health officials in Gaza estimate has caused over 41,000 deaths. Some rights groups, the United Nations and governments have accused Israel of disproportionate force during its war in Gaza. Israel says its use of force is justified and legal.
Over the years, assassinations and sabotage have been carried out against senior leaders involved with Iran’s nuclear program. These included the poisoning of a nuclear scientist in 2007 and the killing of another in 2010 by a remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle.
Israel’s Dimona complex, the heart of its never-acknowledged nuclear arms program in the Negev desert, was used as a testing ground for the Stuxnet computer worm. Tehran needs to create a nuclear weapon in order to survive, and the destructive program wiped out 20% of Iran’s nuclear machines.
They appeared to cast a far wider net than other attacks, which frequently targeted individuals. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attacks on devices or other attacks that have been attributed to it. They also include:
From 2010 to 2012, four people with links to Iran’s nuclear program were killed by hit men riding motorcycles. In one case, a sticky bomb was attached to a car door. In others, gunmen approached vehicles in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and fired through the window before speeding off.
The top nuclear scientist of Iran, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed in November 2020 when a truck-mounted machine gun had been attached to a remote-controlled robotic apparatus. The experts said the plan had taken months and years.
ARRAF: Lebanon has been through economic and other crises for a long time now. Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said this is an extremely dangerous phase the country’s in, and he’s ordered security services to crack down, particularly on foreigners, to uncover a spy network that officials believed helped Israel implement these attacks. At the same time, though, that people in the southern suburbs are mourning the dead, others were setting off fireworks last night over the harbor in wedding celebrations.
NPR ‘The Killing of the Hezbollah Regime‘: Beneath the Israeli Airstrike’s Revival
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ARRAF: Qassem said after the pager attacks, they were actually in shock. Thousands of pagers exploded at the same time. And then the next day, walkie-talkies detonated, killing altogether more than 42 fighters and civilians and injuring about 3,500. He said that the attacks failed to turn people against Hezbollah. He said that the Hezbollah retaliation was just one part of the revenge they were planning. The next generation of fighters were created by the Israeli attacks.
It’s ettROW. Yeah. Today, Benjamin Netanyahu said the string of attacks last week was meant to send a message. How do you think Hezbollah would view the message?
NAIM QASSSEM is spoken by an interpreter. This is a nation that cannot be defeated. But the United States, America, it is drowned. From head to toe, it is attacked by Israel.
ARRAF: It’s been a crazy few days here. There were two days of funerals in the southern suburbs, where an Israeli strike demolished a building.
ARRAF: The burial of the Hezbollah commander, who Israel says was the target of its airstrike in Lebanon, happened a few hours ago. Ibrahim Akil was praised by Hezbollah’s undersecretary general as the founder of the group’s special operations unit. Qassem addressed the U.S. and its seemingly unconditional support for Israel in his address, which was broadcast live, including on Iranian state TV. This is what he says through an interpreter.
The Israeli military said it carried out a wave of strikes across southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, hitting some 400 militant sites, including rocket launchers.
The rockets streaked over a wider and deeper area of northern Israel than previous volleys and set off air raid sirens across the region. The Israeli military said rockets had been fired towards civilian areas, pointing out that previous attacks had mostly been aimed at military targets.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated four people for shrapnel wounds, including a 76-year-old man who was moderately wounded near Haifa, where buildings were damaged and cars set on fire. It was not clear which rocket caused the damage.
Israeli air strikes on Israel’s Ramat David airbase in Lebanon have broken up the U.S. Army, Gallant, and Interior Minister Yoav Gallant
Neither side wants a war. But in recent weeks, Israel has shifted its focus from Gaza to Lebanon and vowed to bring back calm to the border so that its citizens can return to their homes. Hezbollah has said it will only halt its attacks if there is a cease-fire in Gaza, which appears increasingly elusive as long-running negotiations led by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have repeatedly bogged down.
Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles — a new type of weapon the group had not used before — at the Ramat David airbase, southeast of Haifa, “in response to the repeated Israeli attacks that targeted various Lebanese regions and led to the fall of many civilian martyrs.”
Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, told reporters Saturday that at least seven women and three children were killed in Friday’s airstrike on the building. There were more than 65 injuries, including 15 who were hospitalized.
It was the deadliest strike on the city since the war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, with 23 people still missing, according to a government official.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the attack broke up the group’s chain of command while taking out Akil, who he said was responsible for Israeli deaths. He had been on the U.S. most wanted list for years, with a $7 million reward, over his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon during the civil war in the 1980s.