By 1news.co.nz and is republished with permission
- Israel said it killed a top commander with Hezbollah’s missile and rocket unit as the Israeli military traded fire with Hezbollah again and the death toll from a massive Israeli bombing campaign climbed to nearly 560 people.
Thousands fled from southern Lebanon with the two sides on the brink of all-out war. In Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon, displaced families slept in shelters hastily set up in schools. With hotels quickly booked to capacity or rooms priced beyond the means of many families, those who did not find shelter slept in their cars, in parks or along the seaside.
Issa Baydoun fled the village of Shihine in southern Lebanon when it was bombed and drove to Beirut with his extended family. They slept in the vehicles on the side of the road after discovering the shelters were full.
“We struggled a lot on the road just to get here,” said Baydoun, who rejected Israel’s contention that it hit only military targets. “We evacuated our homes because Israel is targeting civilians and attacking them.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon said one of its staffers and her young son were among those killed in the Bekaa region, while a UNHCR-contracted cleaner was killed in a strike in the south. The husband of a staffer and one of her children were seriously wounded.
Well-wishers offered empty apartments or rooms in their houses in social media posts. Volunteers set up a kitchen to cook meals for the displaced at an empty Beirut gas station that first became a hub for volunteers after the city’s devastating 2020 port explosion.
In the eastern city of Baalbek, the state-run National News Agency reported that lines formed at bakeries and gas stations as residents rushed to stock up on essential supplies in anticipation of another round of strikes on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the border crossing with Syria saw massive traffic jams as a result of people escaping from Lebanon to the neighbouring country.
Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah escalate
The Israeli military said that an Israeli strike in Beirut had killed Ibrahim Kobeisi, who it said was a top commander with the group’s rocket and missile unit. Military officials said Kobeisi joined Hezbollah in the 1980s, was responsible for launches towards Israel and planned a 2000 attack in the Mount Dov region in which three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and killed.
It was the latest in a string of assassinations and setbacks for Hezbollah, the strongest political and military actor in Lebanon and widely considered the top paramilitary force in the Arab world. The militant group offered no immediate comment on the Israeli claims.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said six people were killed and 15 were wounded in the strike in a southern Beirut suburb, an area where Hezbollah has a strong presence. The country’s National News Agency said the attack destroyed three floors of a six-storey apartment building.
Israeli military officials said they carried out dozens of airstrikes on Hezbollah targets, including on a cell that fired rockets overnight, and that tanks and artillery struck targets near the border.
Yesterday mourners carried 11 bodies through the streets of the Lebanese village of Saksakieh, some 40km north of the Lebanon-Israel border, including those of four women, an infant and an 7-year-old girl. All were killed in Israel’s bombardment of the village.
Some of the bodies were draped in Hezbollah flags, others wrapped in black clothes. A wreath of flowers was placed on top of the smallest one.
Mohammad Halal, father of 7-year-old Joury Halal, said his daughter was an “innocent child martyr”.
“She is a martyr for the sake of the south and Palestine,” Halal said and defiantly stated his allegiance to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
