Page 17 - Lebanon

Israeli agents likely killed Hezbollah-linked currency exchanger: Lebanon

Lebanon's interior minister alleged Wednesday that the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese currency exchanger in a villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli operatives. The killing of Mohammad Srour, 57, who was sanctioned by the U.S., was like something out of an international spy thriller. Pistols equipped with silencers and gloves were found in a bucket of water and chemicals at the scene, apparently intended to remove fingerprints and other evidence, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said in an interview with The Associated Press. Thousand of dollars in cash were left scattered around Srour's body, as if to dispel any speculation that robbery was the motive. Lebanese security agencies have suspicion or accusations that Mossad was behind this operation, Mawlawi said, referring to the Israeli spy agency. The way the crime was carried out led to this suspicion. He provided no specific evidence for

Hezbollah fires rockets at Israel after its deadly strikes on Lebanon

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired rockets with heavy warheads at towns in northern Israel, saying it used the weapons against civilian targets for the first time Thursday in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes the night before that killed nine, including what the group said were several paramedics. There were no reports of Israelis hurt in the rocket attack, local media said. The Israeli military did not immediately offer comment on the rocket attack. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on October 7, concerns have grown that near-daily clashes along the border between Israel and Lebanon could escalate into a full-scale war. Airstrikes and rocket fire Wednesday killed 16 Lebanese and one Israeli, making it the deadliest day of the current conflict. Israel's chief military spokesman, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, said Israel had killed 30 Hezbollah militants in the past week and destroyed dozens of Hezbollah military sites in an effort to push the Iran-backed group .

Hezbollah launches rockets into Israel in response to IDF strike in Lebanon

Around 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Wednesday morning, according to the Israeli military. Hezbollah took responsibility for the launches and said they were in response to an Israeli airstrike on a paramedic centre linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group in south Lebanon that killed seven of its members overnight. Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group began launching rockets toward Israel one day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7. There has been near-daily violence, mostly confined to the area along the Lebanon-Israel border, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his government will not accept Hamas' delusional conditions for a cease-fire in Gaza. The militant group rejected the latest truce proposal because it says Israel is ignoring the group's core demands: an end to the war and Israel's full ...

Israeli airstrike in northeastern Lebanon wounds 3, says official

An Israeli airstrike deep in northeastern Lebanon early Sunday wounded at least three people, a local official said. The airstrike near the city of Baalbek, a stronghold of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, was the latest to hit the area in recent weeks. The strike occurred a few minutes after midnight and wounded three people according to Baalbek's mayor, Bachir Khodr, who posted the news on X. It was not immediately clear what was struck. The strike came hours after Hezbollah said it used two drones carrying explosives to attack an Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system in the northern Israeli town of Kfar Blum. The Israeli military said warplanes attacked a workshop used by Hezbollah for military activities. It added that after the strike some 50 rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israel, saying some were shot down and others fell in open areas. A pair of Israeli airstrikes March 12 near Baalbek killed at least two people and wounded 20, marking a continuing escalation

Israel vows to target Hezbollah even if temporary pause reached with Hamas

Israel's defence minister vowed Sunday to step up attacks on Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group even if a ceasefire is reached with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah, which has been exchanging fire with Israel throughout the war in Gaza, has said it will halt its nearly daily attacks on Israel if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza. But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that anyone who thinks a temporary ceasefire for Gaza will also apply to the northern front is "mistaken". "We will continue the fire, and we will do so independently from the south, until we achieve our goals," Gallant said. He said there is a simple aim: to push Hezbollah away from the Israeli border, either through a diplomatic agreement or by force. Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas triggered the fighting in Gaza with a deadly attack along Israel's southern border from the Gaza Strip on October 7. Tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border have bee

Building collapse in Beirut suburb kills 4, search underway for survivors

A building collapsed in a southern suburb of Beirut late Monday, killing four people and injuring three others as search operations continued for more people under the rubble, a paramedic official said. The building that collapsed in the suburb of Choueifat Monday night crumbled after days of heavy rain in Lebanon. Local officials said the building was not considered safe and the municipality had ordered the four-story building evacuated two years ago out of concerns its foundations were weak. Despite the order, the owner of the building rented apartments to Syrian families. Most of the people living in the building are Syrian citizens, according to Raja Zreik of the Islamic Health Society that was taking part in rescue operations in the area. He said four people were killed. State-run National News Agency also reported that four people, two women, a man and a child were killed. Zreik told The Associated Press that two women and a boy were pulled out from under the rubble and rushe

Israeli airstrikes killed 10 Lebanese civilians, Hezbollah to retaliate

The civilian death toll from two Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon has risen to 10, Lebanese state media reported on Thursday, making the previous day the deadliest in more than four months of cross-border exchanges. Israel's military said it killed a senior commander with the militant Hezbollah group's elite Radwan Force, Ali Dibs, who it says played a role in an attack inside Israel last year that unnerved Israelis, as well as other attacks directed at Israel over the past four months. It said Dibs was killed on Wednesday along with his deputy Hassan Ibrahim Issa, as well as another Hezbollah operative, in a strike in the southern city of Nabatiyeh. Hezbollah confirmed three of its fighters were killed and released photos of Dibs and Issa without giving information about their roles in the group. A Lebanese security official said Dibs escaped a drone strike in Nabatiyeh last week. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate

Israeli strikes killed 10 Lebanese civilians, Hezbollah vows to retaliate

The civilian death toll from two Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon has risen to 10, Lebanese media reported Thursday, making the previous day the deadliest one in more than four months of cross-border exchanges. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate for the strikes, which hit in the city of Nabatiyeh and a village in southern Lebanon, just hours after projectiles from Lebanon killed an Israeli soldier. In Nabatiyeh, the strike knocked down part of a building, killing seven members of the same family, including a child, the state-run National News Agency said. A boy initially reported missing was found alive under the rubble. Initial reports had said four people were killed. In the village of Souaneh, a woman and her two young children were killed. The Lebanese civilian death toll included six women and three children. Three Hezbollah fighters were also killed on Wednesday. The fire from Lebanon earlier Wednesday struck the northern Israeli town of Safed, killing

Israeli drone strike kills two, injures others in Sidon, Lebanon

An Israeli drone struck a car near Lebanon's southern port city of Sidon on Saturday, killing at least two people and wounding two others, security officials said. The strike came as tensions across the Middle East grow with the Israel-Hamas war, a drone attack last month that killed three US troops in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, and attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels on vessels passing through the Red Sea. The drone strike near the coastal town of Jadra took place about 60 kilometres from the Israeli border, making it one of the farthest inside Lebanon since violence erupted along the Lebanon-Israel border on October 8. An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the target of the strike in Sidon was Hamas official Basel Saleh, who was "injured to an unknown extent". The official said Saleh was responsible for enlistment of new Hamas recruits in Gaza and the West Bank. Two Lebanese security officials said the strike damaged a c

Hamas war: IDF carries out airstrike on Hezbollah site in Southern Lebanon

Meanwhile, the IDF has time and again responded by striking the terror group's cells and posts in southern Lebanon

Israel-Hamas war: Anti-tank missile from Lebanon kills 2 Israeli civilians

An anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon hit a home in northern Israel on Sunday, killing two civilians and renewing concerns about the risk of a second front erupting in the Israel-Hamas war. The deadly strike near the border came on the 100th day of the conflict between Israel and Hamas that has killed nearly 24,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swaths of Gaza, driven around 85 per cent of the territory's 2.3 million residents from their homes and pushed a quarter of the population into starvation. The war was triggered by Hamas' October 7 surprise attack into southern Israel in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages, about half of whom are still in captivity. Since then, tensions have soared across the region, with Israel trading fire almost daily with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group and Iranian-backed militias attacking US targets in Syria and Iraq. In addition, Yemen's Houthi rebels have been targeting international shipping,

Hezbollah struck a sensitive air traffic base in north: Israeli military

Hezbollah has struck an air traffic control base in northern Israel, the Israeli military said Sunday, and warned of another war with the Iran-backed militant group. The increase in fighting across the border with Lebanon as Israel battles Hamas militants in Gaza gave new urgency to U.S. diplomatic efforts as Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to visit Israel on his latest Mideast tour. This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering, Blinken told reporters after talks in Qatar, a key mediator. The escalation of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has complicated a U.S. push to prevent a regional conflict. The Israeli military said Hezbollah fire hit the sensitive air traffic control base on Mount Meron on Saturday but air defences were not affected because backup systems were in place. It said that no soldiers were hurt and all damage will be repaired. Nonetheless, it was one of the most serious attacks

Lebanon airport screens display anti-Hezbollah message after being hacked

The information display screens at Beirut's international airport were hacked by domestic anti-Hezbollah groups on Sunday, as clashes between the Lebanese militant group and the Israeli military continue to intensify along the border. Departure and arrival information was replaced by a message accusing the Hezbollah group of putting Lebanon at risk of an all-out war with Israel. The screens displayed a message with logos from a hardline Christian group dubbed Soldiers of God, which has garnered attention over the past year for its campaigns against the LGBTQ+ community in Lebanon, and a little-known group that calls itself The One Who Spoke. In a video statement, the Christian group denied its involvement, while the other group shared photos of the screens on its social media channels. Hassan Nasrallah, you will no longer have supporters if you curse Lebanon with a war for which you will bear responsibility and consequences, the message read, echoing similar sentiments to critics ov

Mossad chief vows to hunt down Hamas members day after senior figure killed

The chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence service vowed on Wednesday that the agency would hunt down every Hamas member involved in the October 7 attack on Israel, no matter where they are. His pledge came a day after the deputy head of the Palestinian militant group was killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Beirut. Israel has refused to comment on reports it carried out the killing, but the remarks by David Barnea appeared to be the strongest indication yet it was behind the blast. He made a comparison to the aftermath of the slayings at the Munich Olympics in 1972, when Mossad agents tracked down and killed Palestinian militants involved in killing Israeli athletes. Israel was on high alert on Wednesday for an escalation with Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah militia after the strike in the Lebanese capital killed Saleh Arouri, the most senior Hamas member slain since the war in Gaza erupted nearly three months ago. The strike in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold could cause the

Top Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri killed in Israeli drone strike in Beirut

An explosion in Beirut on Tuesday killed Saleh Arouri, a top official with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and three others, officials with Hamas and the Lebanese group Hezbollah said. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the blast killed four people and was carried out by an Israeli drone. Israeli officials declined to comment. If Israel is behind the attack it could mark a major escalation in the Middle East conflict. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to retaliate against any Israeli targeting of Palestinian officials in Lebanon. Hamas official Bassem Naim confirmed to The Associated Press that Arouri was killed in the blast. A Hezbollah official speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations also said Arouri was killed. Arouri, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, had headed the group's presence in the West Bank. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him even before the Hamas-Israel war began on Octo

Israeli airstrike in Syria kills another Iranian general; toll rises to 3

An Israeli airstrike Monday in a Damascus neighbourhood killed a high-ranking Iranian general, Iranian state media said. The killing of Razi Mousavi, a long-time adviser of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Syria, comes as clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border between Hezbollah and Israel continue to intensify with fears of the Israel-Hamas war sparking a regional spillover with Iran-backed groups. The Israeli strikes killed two other generals earlier this month in Syria. Israel struck the Sayida Zeinab neighbourhood, located near a Shiite Muslim shrine, Iran's official news agency IRNA and Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. IRNA described Mousavi as a close companion of Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force who was slain in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020. Neither the Israeli military nor Syrian state media immediately issued a statement about the attack. Though IRNA didn't provide other

Indictment against Hezbollah figure says he helped plan Argentina bombing

A high-ranking member of Hezbollah's Islamic Jihad Organisation was charged with terrorism offences, including the bombing of a building in Argentina in 1994 that killed 85 people, in an indictment unsealed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court. Samuel Salman El Reda, 58, who remains at large and is believed to be in Lebanon, was described by federal authorities as the leader of terrorist activity carried out by Hezbollah since at least 1993. From 1993 to 2015, he conspired to support terrorists in Lebanon, Argentina, Panama, Thailand and elsewhere, the indictment said as it listed six aliases for El Reda, including Salman Ramal, Sulayman Rammal, Salman Raouf Salman and Hajj. He faces conspiracy charges and a count alleging he provided material support to a terrorist organisation. Assistant Attorney General Matthew G Olsen said in a release that El Reda nearly three decades ago helped plan and execute the heinous attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish community centre that murdered 85 ...

A negotiated outcome is best way to end Lebanon-Israel tension, says US NSA

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday that he has discussed with Israeli officials the volatile situation along the Lebanon-Israel border, adding that a negotiated outcome is the best way to reassure residents of northern Israel. Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Sullivan said that Washington won't tolerate threats by Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, which has been attacking Israeli military posts along the border since a day after the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7. Over the past two months, Israel has evacuated more than 20,000 of its citizens from towns and villages along the border with Lebanon, some of whom have expressed concerns that they have no plans to return home as long as Hezbollah fighters are deployed on the Lebanese side of the border. We need to send a clear message that we will not tolerate the kinds of threats and terrorist activity that we have seen from Hezbollah and from the territory of Lebanon, Sullivan told reporters in ...

Struck a manned Hezbollah observation post in Lebanon, says Israel

In addition, the IDF said it identified a group of operatives at an anti-tank missile launch site, from where the attack was conducted earlier. According to IDF, the site and operatives were struck

Israeli military 'regrets' casualties in attack that harmed Lebanese troops

In a rare apology, Israeli Defence Forces on Wednesday expressed regret at an inadvertent attack in which a Lebanese soldier was killed while it targeted a Hezbollah-linked post and said the incident is under review. Clashes at Israel's northern border with Lebanon have intensified with regular exchanges of fire since the war broke out in Gaza between Hamas militants and Israel on October 7. Israeli forces have mainly responded to attacks from the Shia faction Hezbollah, backed by Iran, which has claimed that it was unaware of the October 7 attack, calling its origin and execution local in nature. In addresses to supporters, the faction's leader Hasan Nasrallah has distanced his organisation and its Iranian masters from any responsibility in the October 7 incident but expressed support for Hamas raising fears of a possible wider conflagration in the region. Israel has issued stern warnings but taken every possible step to keep the escalation at its northern border in check. It has