Israel pounds Lebanon, pressuring Hezbollah after killing its leader

[Pelican Press 0]

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******* pounds Lebanon, pressuring Hezbollah after ******** its leader

Smoke rises from ******** airstrike locations on September 29, 2024 in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon.

Daniel Carde | Getty Images News | Getty Images

******* struck multiple targets in Lebanon on Sunday, pressing Iran-backed Hezbollah with more attacks after it struck a huge ***** by ******** the group’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The ******** military said the air force had “struck dozens of Hezbollah ******* targets in Lebanon, including launchers that were aimed toward ******** territory, structures in which weapons were stored and additional Hezbollah ********** infrastructure”.

The navy had intercepted a projectile approaching ******* from the area of the Red Sea and another eight projectiles coming from Lebanon had fallen in open areas, it said in a statement.

Nasrallah was ******* in a massive ******** air ******* on Friday on the group’s headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs. It was a major ***** to Hezbollah and to Iran, removing an influential ally who helped build Hezbollah into the linchpin of Tehran’s network of allied groups in the ***** world.

******* announced his ******** on Saturday and Hezbollah later confirmed his ******.

In its announcement, Hezbollah said it would keep fighting ******* and has continued to ***** rockets at it, including a salvo on Sunday morning.

Nasrallah’s ****** capped a traumatic fortnight for Hezbollah, starting with the detonation of thousands of communications devices used by its members.

******* was widely assumed to have carried out that action but has not confirmed or denied it did.

Homes are heavily damaged around buildings which were levelled on September 27 by ******** strikes that targeted and ******* Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs, on September 29, 2024.

– | Afp | Getty Images

The escalation has increased fears the conflict could spin out of control, potentially drawing in Iran as well as the ******* States, *******’s closest ally.

Hezbollah and ******* have been fighting in parallel with *******’s war in Gaza against ****** since the Iran-backed ************ group’s ******* on ******* last Oct. 7.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 33 people had been ******* in ******** strikes on Lebanon during Saturday, bringing the total toll since hostilities broke out on Oct. 8 last year to more than 1,670, including 104 children.

In Beirut, displaced families spent the night on the benches at Zaitunay Bay, a string of restaurants and cafes on Beirut’s waterfront where private security usually shoos away any loiterers.

On Sunday morning, families with nothing more than a duffle bag of clothes had rolled out mats to sleep on and poured tea for themselves.

“You won’t be able to ******** us, whatever you do, however much you *****, however much you displace people – we will stay here. We won’t leave. This is our country and we’re staying,” said Francoise Azori, a Beirut resident jogging through the area.

The ******* Nations’ World Food Programme said in a statement on Sunday it had launched an emergency operation to provide food for up to 1 million people affected by the conflict in Lebanon.

‘Balance of power’

******** Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday Nasrallah’s ******** was a necessary step toward “changing the balance of power in the region for years to come”.

“Nasrallah was not a **********, he was the **********,” Netanyahu said in a statement, warning of challenging days ahead.

******* said it ******* senior Hezbollah official Ali Karaki and other commanders along with Nasrallah.

U.S. President Joe Biden described Nasrallah’s ****** as a measure of justice for what he called his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese, and said the U.S. fully supported *******’s right to self-defence.

But when asked if an ******** ground incursion into Lebanon was inevitable, Biden told reporters on Saturday: “It’s time for a ceasefire.”

A view of debris of the building, where Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah lost his life, after ******** army’s airstrike, carried out by F-35 fighter jets, in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon on September 29, 2024.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was moved to a secure location in Iran after Nasrallah’s ********, sources told Reuters. Khamenei said Nasrallah’s ****** would be avenged and his path in fighting ******* would be pursued by other militants.

Tehran called for a U.N. Security Council meeting on *******’s actions in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region, warning against any attacks on its diplomatic facilities and representatives.

A senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan, was also ******* in Friday’s attacks, Iranian media reported.

******** Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said *******’s war was not with the Lebanese people. He held talks late on Saturday about possibly expanding *******’s military offensive on its northern front, his office said.

Hezbollah has said it would cease ***** only when *******’s Gaza offensive ends. ****** and other allies of Hezbollah issued statements mourning his ******.

********** condolences

Lebanon’s top ********** cleric, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, said Nasrallah’s ******** had “opened a wound in the heart of the Lebanese”.

Rai has previously voiced criticism of the Shi’ite Islamist Hezbollah, accusing it of dragging Lebanon into regional conflicts.

“We offer our personal condolences to the family and community of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” he said in a sermon.

Hezbollah’s arsenal has long been a point of contention in Lebanon, a country with a history of civil conflict. Hezbollah’s Lebanese critics say the group has unilaterally pulled the country into conflicts and undermined the state.

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