The killing of a senior leader in Hezbollah: revenge for an airstrike on Ismail Haniyeh
Fuad Shukr, a senior leader in Hezbollah, was assassinated by Israel in an airstrike on a house in Lebanon. Israel claimed that it was behind the killing because it was revenge for an attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights a few days ago that killed at least 12 people.
Hours later, the leader of Hamas’s political office, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed by an explosive device hidden in a guesthouse in Tehran where he was staying after he had attended the inauguration of Iran’s president. Iran vowed to retaliate for the attack, which it called a violation of its sovereignty. Israel did not confirm or deny involvement in that attack.
Hamas launched an attack on Israel in October, in which 1,200 Palestinians died and around 250 were taken hostage. They are holding around 100 captives and many of them are believed to be dead. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed. It does not say how many were fighters but says women and children make up over half of the dead.
Iran’s Dimona complex as a test ground for Stuxnet computer worm: Attacks on Iranian nuclear programs and a nuclear scientist killed by a robot
A series of operations, including assassinations and sabotage, over the years have targeted 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 produce a nuclear weapon in order to be considered a state sponsor of terrorism.
They appeared to cast a wider net than other attacks, which targeted individuals. Israel has not claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks on devices, or for many other attacks that have been attributed to it. They also include:
Four people with links to the Iranian nuclear program were killed by hit men over a three year period. In one case in 2010, an assassin attached a bomb to a car door. In others, there was a shooting in Tehran where attackers opened fire through the window of vehicles.
In November 2020, Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed by gunshots fired from a truck-mounted machine gun that had been attached to a remote-controlled robotic apparatus. Experts said the operation had taken months, and likely years, of planning.
Israel-Israel Interaction in the Gaza War Revealed by a New Type of Airborne Warfare, and Its Implications for Gaza
The area of Haifa and Nazareth, which are further south than most of the rocket fire thus far, were reported to be the places where the rockets were fired from from Lebanon. Israel canceled school across the north, deepening the sense of crisis.
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 “toward civilian areas,” pointing to a possible escalation after previous barrages had mainly 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 immediately clear if the damage was caused by a rocket.
Since the start of the war in Gaza almost a year ago, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire in a conflict that has caused damage to both countries. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the low-level fighting.
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.”
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel for a wave of explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people — including two children — and wounding around 3,000. The attacks were believed to have been committed by Israel.
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. He said that more than 70 people were injured and 15 of them were hospitalized.
The strike was the worst since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, and it could be worse since at least 23 people are still missing.
The group’s chain of command was broken in the attack, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said. 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.