Hezbollah strikes Israel on Gaza war anniversary; fears grow over Middle East instability

[Pelican Press 0]

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Hezbollah strikes ******* on Gaza war anniversary; fears grow over Middle East instability

By Steven Scheer and Yomna Ehab

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) – Hezbollah rockets hit *******’s third-largest city of Haifa, police said early on Monday, and ******** media reported 10 injured in the country’s north on the first anniversary of the Gaza war, which has spread in the Middle East.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of ******, the ************ militants group fighting ******* in Gaza, said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with a salvo of “Fadi 1” missiles.

Media said two rockets hit Haifa on *******’s Mediterranean coast and five hit Tiberias, 65 km (40 miles) away.

Police said some buildings and properties were damaged, and there were reports of minor injuries, with some people taken to a nearby hospital.

*******’s military said fighter jets hit targets belonging to Hezbollah’s Intelligence Headquarters in Beirut, including intelligence-gathering means, command centres, and additional infrastructure sites.

Over the past few hours, the airstrikes struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in the area of Beirut, the military said, adding that secondary explosions were identified after the strikes, indicating the presence of weaponry.

Airstrikes also hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa area, including weapons storage facilities, infrastructure sites, a command centre, and a launcher, the military said.

It blamed Hezbollah for deliberately embedding its command centres and weaponry beneath residential buildings in the heart of Beirut and endangering the civilian population.

On Monday, Israelis marked the first anniversary of the devastating ****** ******* that triggered a war which has sparked protest worldwide and risks igniting a far wider conflict in the Middle East.

Ceremonies and protests in Jerusalem and *******’s south were set to begin around 06:29 a.m., the hour when ******-led militants launched rockets into ******* at the start of the Oct. 7 ******* last year.

They ******* some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to ******** figures.

****** provoked an ******** offensive in Gaza that ***** waste the densely populated coastal enclave and ******* almost 42,000 people, ************ health authorities say.

Security forces were on high alert across ******* on Monday, the military and police said, anticipating possible ************ attacks planned for the anniversary of Oct. 7, 2023, when the worst bloodletting in the decades-old ********-************ conflict began.

For *******, the surprise ******** by the ************ Islamist group, also an ally of Iran, was one of the worst security failures for a country that prides itself on a strong, sophisticated military.

The ****** ******* on ******** communities around Gaza and *******’s relentless campaign in response have destabilised the Middle East while the scale of the ******** and destruction have horrified people worldwide.

******* has dealt major blows to ****** and Hezbollah with a series of assassinations of its leaders and commanders, – part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” that also includes Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq to ****** ******* and U.S. interests in the Middle East.

Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, who travelled to Lebanon after last month’s ******** of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an ******** airstrike, has not been heard from since strikes on Beirut late last week, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters.

One of the officials said Qaani was in Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh, during a strike reported to have targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, but the official said he was not meeting Safieddine.

The Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, supervises dealings with militias allied with Tehran across the Middle East, such as Hezbollah.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was ******* with Nasrallah in his bunker when it was hit on Sept. 27 by ******** ******.

The focus of the war has increasingly shifted north to Lebanon where ******** forces have been exchanging ***** with Hezbollah since the Iranian-backed group launched a barrage of missiles in support of ****** on Oct. 8.

What began as limited daily exchanges has escalated into bombardments of Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut and a ground offensive into border villages meant to stamp out its fighters there and allow tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from their homes in the country’s north to return.

*******’s ********, which has ******* well over 1,000 people in the past two weeks, has triggered a mass flight from southern Lebanon, where more than 1 million people have been displaced.

The escalation has raised fears that the ******* States and Iran will be sucked into a wider war in the oil-producing Middle East.

Iran launched a missile ******* on ******* last week in response to its operations in Lebanon and Gaza, where Hezbollah and ****** militants are Tehran’s allies in a so-called Axis of Resistance.

*******, which says its objective is the safe return of tens of thousands of citizens to northern homes, vowed retaliation amid fears that tension would escalate into an all-out regional conflict that could also ***** in the ******* States.

(This story has been refiled to correct the spelling of ‘********’ in paragraph 1)

(Reporting by Steven Scheer and Yomna Ehab; Additional reporting by Monica Naime; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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