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Israel Attacked the South Beirutfor the elderly Hezbollah commander claim Responsible for the “crime of killing children”.
Footage from the Lebanese capital showed multiple cars destroyed and high-rise buildings damaged by the blast. Thick black smoke enveloped the footage and residents could be heard screaming.
It was the first time the Israeli military had targeted Beirut since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead and 251 hostages. Hezbollah has been firing on Israel since that day, raising concerns that Israel could eventually — or Even preemptive —Fighting on two fronts.
The Israeli military claimed that the attack was their widely expected response to rocket attacks on the occupied territories. Golan Heights last Saturday Killed a dozen children and young people.
The alleged target of the attack was Fuad Shukr, also known as al-Hajj Mohsin, a senior adviser on military affairs to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. It is unclear whether the attack was successful, but Hezbollah was quick to deny that Shukr had been killed. The Israeli military refused to confirm that Shuk was the target of the attack, as the Israeli military refused to confirm that Shuk was the target. independent.
The Iran-backed militia Hezbollah claimed they were not responsible for attacks targeting Druze communities in the Golan Heights.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they had no illusions about Hezbollah’s role in the attack. He vowed a “harsh” response during a visit to the site of the attack in the remote town of Majdal Shams, a Druze village in an area Israel annexed from Syria in 1981.
U.S. officials have also said they believe Hezbollah was responsible for the attack, though Joe Biden’s administration has urged Israel not to unduly escalate tensions in response to the assault.
Diplomats called on Israel to avoid targeting the Lebanese capital, Beirut, Lebanon’s southern suburbs – Hezbollah’s heartland – or critical infrastructure, hoping to prevent Hezbollah from taking strong retaliation by limiting Israel’s response.
But an Israeli military statement confirmed they had defied that advice and targeted southern Beirut.
“(Israeli forces) carried out a targeted strike in Beirut against the commander responsible for the killing of children of Majdal Shams and a large number of other Israeli civilians,” read a statement posted by X (formerly Twitter).
A minute after the statement was released, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, a close Netanyahu aide, wrote on the X website: “Hezbollah has crossed a red line.”
The military also said there had been “no changes” to their “defense guidance,” referring to their recent operations along Israel’s northern border, in preparation for an offensive if necessary.
In April, the Israeli military said it had completed another step in preparing for a possible war on the northern front. In a statement titled “Preparations for the transition from defense to offense,” the Israeli military said the completed phase focused on the logistics of “massive mobilization of the (Israeli) army.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Hezbollah rejected calls from international envoys to refrain from responding to an expected Israeli strike in retaliation for a deadly rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
In written comments sent to reporters, the official said Hezbollah told mediators it would still respond to any Israeli attack.
The official did not disclose which countries the mediators represented.
“International envoys indirectly presented to us the idea that we should not react to expected aggression under the pretext of the need to avoid escalation and a slide toward all-out war,” the Hezbollah official said.
The official said Hezbollah “has informed them that we categorically reject this request” and will respond.
The official said the group took the Israeli threat seriously and prepared for it, but did not expect a ground invasion.
Hezbollah also said mediators had briefed them on diplomatic efforts to urge Israel not to harm civilians and civilian facilities in any operations. “This is a good thing, but we don’t trust our enemies,” the official added.
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