Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel on Saturday, warning that the barrage was its initial response to the targeted killing, presumably by Israel, of a top leader from the allied Hamas group in Lebanon’s capital earlier this week.
Quick Read
- Hezbollah’s Rocket Attack: Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel, declaring this as a response to the killing of a top Hamas leader in Lebanon.
- Retaliation for Hamas Leader’s Death: Hezbollah’s action comes after the death of Saleh Arouri, Hamas’ deputy political leader, in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut.
- Hezbollah’s Justification: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stated that retaliation was necessary to prevent Lebanon from becoming vulnerable to Israeli attacks.
- Details of the Attack: Hezbollah claimed to have launched 62 rockets, hitting an Israeli air surveillance base and army posts. Israel acknowledged the attack but did not confirm the hits.
- Other Militant Actions: The Islamic Group in Lebanon also launched rockets toward Kiryat Shmona in Israel, adding to the cross-border tensions.
- Context of U.S. Diplomatic Efforts: Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Middle East tour coincides with this escalation, which adds complexity to his diplomatic mission.
- Israel-Hamas War Impact: The Israel-Hamas conflict has seen heavy Israeli offensive in Gaza, with significant Palestinian casualties and humanitarian crises.
- International Concern: There is growing international criticism of Israel’s military operation in Gaza due to the high civilian death toll.
- Blinken’s Diplomatic Focus: Blinken is seeking support from regional players like Turkey and Greece to prevent the conflict from spreading and to plan for Gaza’s post-war reconstruction.
- EU’s Peace Initiative: The EU’s foreign policy chief is working on a European-Arab initiative for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Associated Press has the story:
Hezbollah fires rockets at Israel. Palestinians death toll tops 22,722
Newslooks- BEIRUT (AP)
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel on Saturday, warning that the barrage was its initial response to the targeted killing, presumably by Israel, of a top leader from the allied Hamas group in Lebanon’s capital earlier this week.
The rocket attack came a day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that his group must retaliate for the killing of Saleh Arouri, the deputy political leader of Hamas, in a Hezbollah stronghold south of Beirut. Nasrallah said that if Hezbollah did not strike back, all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to Israeli attack. He appeared to be making his case for a response to the Lebanese public, even at the risk of escalating the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel as the war between Israel and Hamas rages on.
Hezbollah said it launched 62 rockets toward an Israeli air surveillance base on Mount Meron and that it scored direct hits. The group said rockets also struck two army posts near the border. The Israeli military said about 40 rockets were fired toward Meron and that a base was targeted, but made no mention of the base being hit. It said it struck the Hezbollah cell that fired the rockets.
Separately, the armed wing of the Islamic Group in Lebanon said it fired two volleys of rockets toward the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona on Friday night. Two of the group’s members were killed in the strike that killed Arouri.
The cross-border escalation came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was kicking off an urgent Middle East diplomatic tour, his fourth to the region since the Israel-Hamas war erupted three months ago. The war was triggered by a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 hostages.
In recent weeks, Israel has been scaling back its military assault in the north of the territory and pressing its heavy offensive in the south, vowing to crush Hamas. In the south, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians are being squeezed into smaller areas in a humanitarian disaster, while still being pounded by Israeli airstrikes.
On Saturday, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 122 Palestinians were killed over the past 24 hours, bringing the total since the start of the war to 22,722. The count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. The ministry has said two-thirds of those killed have been women and children. The overall number of wounded rose to 58,166, the ministry said.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah received at least 46 bodies overnight, according to hospital records seen by The Associated Press. Many were men who were apparently shot. Fighting has raged between Israeli forces and militants in the area. The dead also included five members of a family killed in an airstrike, the records showed.
The latest Israeli-dropped leaflets urged Palestinians in some areas near the hospital to evacuate, citing “dangerous fighting.”
In the southern city of Khan Younis, the focus of Israel’s ground offensive, the local European Hospital received the bodies of 18 people killed in an overnight airstrike on a house in the city’s Maan neighborhood, said Saleh al-Hamms, head of the nursing department at the hospital. Citing witnesses, he said more than three dozen people had been sheltering in the house, including those displaced.
Israel has held Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, saying the group has embedded within in Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. Still, international criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war has grown more persistent because of the rising civilian death toll. The United States has urged Israel to do more to prevent harm to civilians, even as it keeps sending weapons and munitions while shielding its close ally against international censure.
Blinken began his latest Mideast trip in Turkey on Saturday. The Biden administration believes that Turkey and others can exert influence, particularly on Iran and its proxies, to tamp down fears of a regional conflagration. Those fears have spiked in recent days with incidents in the Red Sea, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.
In talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Blinken sought Turkish support for still nascent plans for post-war Gaza that could include monetary or in-kind contributions to reconstruction efforts and some form of participation in a proposed multinational force that could operate in or adjacent to the territory.
From Turkey, Blinken was traveling to Turkish rival and fellow NATO ally Greece to meet Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at his residence on the Mediterranean island of Crete. Mitsotakis and his government have been supportive of U.S. efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading and have signaled their willingness to assist should the situation deteriorate.
Other stops on the trip include Jordan, followed by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Sunday and Monday. Blinken will visit Israel and the West Bank next week before wrapping up the trip in Egypt.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief said during a visit to Beirut he aims to jump-start a European-Arab initiative to revive a peace process that would result in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Josep Borrell said he will visit Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
“The only way is the creation of a Palestinian state offering a horizon of hope for the Palestinians,” he said.
