Israel claims it killed senior Hezbollah commander in strike on Beirut
"Netanyahu vows revenge after rocket strike kills 12 people in Golan Heights "Jewish demonstrators arrested in Cannon Rotunda for protesting Gaza war "Live updates, Israel’s war on Gaza live: ‘Dramatic surge’ in attacks on UN-run centres Israel's New Demands Are Expected to Delay Completion of Hostage Deal, Sources Say "Gaza’s invisible massacre: aid workers killed in record numbers "Note the latest stolen Palestinian land is contiguous to another block close to the Jordan border. Look at the map again ..""
Reports are that moderate factions in Hamas are horrified because now it will be harder for them to reach a negotiated agreement to end the war. Don't forget, Netanyahu can't negotiate to end the war, or he could lose coalition members, so then lose government.
Quentin Sommerville, Nafiseh Kohnavard and Mark Lowen BBC News, in Beirut and Jerusalem
VIDEO - Watch: Chaos and damage in Beirut suburb after explosion
Israel says it has killed a top Hezbollah commander after carrying out an air strike on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
The Israeli military says Fuad Shukr was the target of an "intelligence-based elimination".
Hezbollah has not yet confirmed his death, but says Shukr was in a building that was hit at the time.
Israeli officials say he was responsible for a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday which killed 12 people, mostly children .. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c29dydz84ngo . Hezbollah has denied any involvement in that attack.
[ Insert: As a rule Hezbollah claims credit for attack it makes and normally does not attack that part of Israel "[...]"It was a shock because not once in the last nine months, even when the sirens were sounding, did we feel we were being targeted," she said. Israel has accused the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah of carrying out the strike and on Monday, during a visit to Majdal Shams, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a "harsh response". Hezbollah denies killing the youngsters but said it had launched strikes on what it said were military targets in nearby areas of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/druze-shock-war-between-israel-hezbollah-strikes-home-2024-07-29/ ]
In a statement on Wednesday, Hezbollah said the rubble was still being removed from the site of the building in Daniyeh - a stronghold of the armed group which was "still waiting for the result".
It said a number of people had been killed in the attack.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned "blatant Israeli aggression".
He described it as a "criminal act" in a "series of aggressive operations killing civilians in clear and explicit violation of international law."
In a brief post on social media after the attack, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: "Hezbollah crossed the red line".
An Israeli official has confirmed to CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that Israel gave the US notice of its Beirut strike.
VIDEO - Chaos and damage in Beirut after Israeli air strike
Fuad Shukr is believed to be a senior adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the US has previously said.
It has been offering a $5m (3.9m) reward for information about him, alleging he also played a "central role" in the 1983 bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 US military personnel.
Haret Hreik, the area of Dahiyeh hit by the air strike, is densely populated and strongly fortified. Dahiyeh itself is surrounded by Hezbollah checkpoints.
Speaking after the Israeli strike, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that US President Joe Biden believed a wider war between Israel and Hezbollah could be avoided.
"We do not want to see an escalation, we do not want to see an all-out war," she said.
Earlier in the day, two unnamed Israeli officials told Reuters news agency that while Israel sought to hurt Hezbollah, it did not want to drag Lebanon into all-out war.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) later said there would be no new instructions for Israelis on taking shelter, suggesting they did not anticipate an immediate or significant Hezbollah reaction.
Both sides are aware of the cost of all-out war, which could bring in Iran in support of its Lebanese proxy.
The strike damaged buildings in the heavily built-up neighbourhood of Dahieyh
An Israeli reaction had been widely expected after the deadly attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, and Israel's security cabinet had authorised Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant to decide how to retaliate .. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw5y49rv174o .
---------- [American Leaders Should Stop Debasing Themselves on Israel [...]But Israel is led by a prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has to stay in power to avoid potentially being sent to prison on corruption charges. To do so, he sold his soul to form a government with far-right Jewish extremists who insist that Israel must fight in Gaza until it has killed every last Hamasnik — “total victory” — and who reject any partnership with the Palestinian Authority (which has accepted the Oslo peace accords) in governing a post-Hamas Gaza, because they want Israeli control over all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, including Gaza. [...]Netanyahu knows that this is all about domestic U.S. politics, which is why his acceptance of the speaking invitation is such an act of disloyalty to Joe Biden — who flew all the way to Israel to hug him in the days after Oct. 7 — that it simply takes your breath away. [...]That would be madness in a time of peace. In a time of war — a low-grade three-front war that could become a high-grade three-front war any day — it is insane. Israel is increasingly alone, because what ally would want to partner with that agenda? P - And that is why I agree with every word that former Prime Minister Ehud Barak wrote in Haaretz .. https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-06-13/ty-article-opinion/.premium/israel-must-oust-its-failed-government-before-it-sinks-into-the-moral-abyss/00000190-1285-d621-abfa-5bb5e9840000 .. last Thursday: Israel faces “the most serious and dangerous crisis in the country’s history. It began on Oct. 7 with the worst failure in Israel’s history. And it continued with a war that, despite the courage and sacrifice of soldiers and officers, appears to be the least successful war in its history, due to the strategic paralysis in the country’s leadership.” P - Israel, added Barak, a former army chief of staff, is “risking a multifront war that would include Iran and its proxies. And all this is happening while in the background the judicial coup continues, with its goal of establishing a racist, ultranationalist, messianic and benighted religious dictatorship.” P - Barak warned that if the current government is allowed to remain in power, Israel will not only find itself stuck in Gaza — with Hamas still able to fight and no Arab partner to help Israel out of there — it will also most likely find itself “in an all-out war with Hezbollah in the north, a third intifada in the West Bank, conflicts with the Houthis in Yemen and Iraqi militias in the Golan Heights and, of course, conflict with Iran itself.” P - Every American should worry about that. It is a prescription for the United States to be dragged into a Middle East war to help Israel — which would be a Russian, Chinese, Iranian dream come true. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174622057] ----------
At least 12 people were killed - mostly children - when a rocket hit a football pitch in Majdal Shams on Saturday.
Israel has blamed Hezbollah, but the group denies any involvement.
It was the deadliest incident near the Israel-Lebanon border since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah escalated in October.
That escalation came after Hamas' attack on Israel on 7 October.
Hezbollah - which supports Hamas - opened up a limited second front in Israel's north, and the two sides have been exchanging fire ever since.
Recent days have seen world leaders urge restraint over fears of an all-out war.
On Tuesday the UK foreign secretary told UK nationals in Lebanon to leave immediately or risk "becoming trapped in a warzone".
David Lammy has arrived in Qatar along with Defence Secretary John Healey "to "drive forward efforts to bring the conflict in Gaza to an end and to press for de-escalation in the region", the Foreign Office said.
He said escalation and destabilisation were "in no-one's interests", adding: “It is absolutely vital that we engage closely with partners like Qatar, who play a key role in mediating the conflict in Gaza, so that we can bring this devastating war to an end."
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