The Lebanese capital Beirut was again the target of massive bombing by the Israeli army that night. According to media reports, the attack targeted a meeting of senior Hezbollah officials – including the most promising candidate to replace Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was recently killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
This would be Hashim Safi al-Din, head of the Executive Council. It is still unclear whether he was actually in the bombed bunker in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital at the time.
Explosions were heard on video recordings above the city, huge flames and plumes of smoke rising into the night sky. The Israeli army had warned residents of certain buildings in the southern suburbs in Arabic to evacuate.
Israel does not want a large-scale land war
The attacks came as Israeli troops and tanks battled Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Israel’s goal is to drive the pro-Iranian Shiite militia from the border so that some 60,000 evacuated Israelis can return to their homes. The goal of the ground offensive so far has been to destroy tunnels and weapons that Hezbollah had prepared near the border for a possible attack on Israel, the Wall Street Journal quoted several Israeli officials briefed on the operation as saying. Accordingly, the military has no intention of turning the invasion into a full-scale land war in Lebanon. According to the army, nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting so far.
At the same time, Israel again received massive rocket fire from Lebanon. Within one day, approximately 230 projectiles and several drones were counted fired by the Shiite militia Hezbollah into northern Israel, the Israeli army announced in the evening. The day before, the number of such attacks reached 140. Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly in many cities in Israel. Some of the bullets were intercepted, others fell over uninhabited areas, it was said. Nothing was reported about possible casualties or major damage.
Ex-general: “Hezbollah hopes for guerrilla war”
Although Hezbollah has been weakened by the Israeli army’s recent massive attacks, it has retained its capabilities as a guerrilla force in the south of the country, the Washington Post quoted a retired Lebanese army general as saying. “Hezbollah hopes that the Israelis will penetrate deeper into Lebanon,” he said. “The air war that the Israelis waged was very successful. If they remain on the ground, Hezbollah will get the war it wants,” Hussein Ibish of the Arab Gulf States Institute, a Washington think tank, told the Wall Street Journal.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
