At least 105 dead in Lebanon in violent Israeli raids

The Israeli army carried out violent raids on Sunday against Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon in which at least 105 people died, two days after killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah along with dozens of members of the Lebanese Islamist movement.

On another front, Israel carried out deadly raids against targets of the Houthi rebels in Yemen, the day after a strike claimed by these pro-Iranian insurgents towards Tel Aviv airport. “No place is too far away” for Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned.

A full-scale war in the Middle East “must be avoided,” US President Joe Biden said, after calling Nasrallah's death a “measure of justice.”

Maintaining military pressure against Hezbollah, Israel said it attacked “dozens of terrorist targets” of the Shiite movement in Lebanon on Sunday, including rocket launch sites and military installations. In the evening, it said it had carried out about 120 additional “large-scale” strikes in southern Lebanon and elsewhere in the country.

Raids targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hassan Nasrallah died Friday in a powerful Israeli strike that leveled entire buildings.

His body “was found Saturday and has been shrouded,” a source close to the movement said, specifying that the date of the funeral had not yet been set.

A municipal worker walks amidst rubble next to a damaged building following an overnight Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, September 29, 2024 © AFP – –

Israel has carried out strikes in southern Lebanon, in the Bekaa Valley and in southern Beirut, killing more than 105 people in total, according to a new report from the Health Ministry. In addition, in the last 48 hours, 14 medics have been killed in Israeli strikes, according to him.

– “We are afraid” –

During its operation called “New Order”, the Israeli army said it had killed with Hassan Nasrallah “more than 20 other terrorists of different ranks, present in the underground HQ (of Hezbollah) located under civilian buildings and who directed terrorist operations against Israel”.

Graffiti depicting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed on Friday, on a street in Tel Aviv, September 29, 2024 © AFP – GIL COHEN-MAGEN

Israel has claimed that “most” of Hezbollah's senior leaders have been killed in recent months during operations by its forces.

The death of Hassan Nasrallah, considered the most powerful man in Lebanon, is a major victory for Israel against Iran and its allies, deals a devastating blow to the Palestinian Hamas movement, which is at war with Israel in Gaza, and plunges the region into the unknown.

Despite the constant blows from Israel, the movement announced that it had fired rockets against northern Israel. About eight projectiles landed in open ground near Tiberias, the army said.

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Paramedics recover a body at the site of a strike on a village in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, on September 29, 2024 © AFP – –

“We have settled our accounts with the person responsible for the murder of countless Israelis and many citizens of other countries,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We are afraid that there will be a total escalation,” said Matan Sofer, a resident of the Israeli town of Rosh Pina, about thirty kilometers from the Lebanese border.

– Waiting for a successor –

“Nasrallah's line” will continue and its sacred objective will be achieved with the liberation of Jerusalem,” said Iran, Israel's sworn enemy, which finances and arms Hezbollah.

Tehran also warned that the death of an Iranian general killed alongside Nasrallah “will not remain unanswered.”

Israeli strike against the Haret Hreik neighborhood, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, September 27, 2024 © AFP – Ibrahim AMRO

At the head of Hezbollah since 1992, Hassan Nasrallah, 64, was a man of religion who was the object of a veritable cult of personality among his supporters, mainly within the Shiite Muslim community of which he is a issue.

His cousin Hachem Safieddine, a prominent figure in the party, appears to be a potential successor.

The attack on Nasrallah shows “the extent to which Israel has infiltrated Hezbollah,” says James Dorsey, a researcher at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.

“Either we are witnessing an unprecedented reaction from Hezbollah (…) or its total defeat,” believes Heiko Wimmen, a specialist on the region at the International Crisis Group.

– Hundreds of thousands displaced –

The first senior Western diplomat to visit Lebanon since the intensification of Israeli strikes, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot arrived in the evening in Beirut.

According to Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, nearly a million people may have been displaced by Israeli bombing, the largest population displacement in the country's history, he said.

The World Food Programme has announced an emergency operation to provide food aid to one million people.

Strikes in Lebanon and Israel © AFP – Cléa PECULIER, Sabrina BLANCHARD

The Shiite movement opened a front against Israel at the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by an attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israeli territory on October 7, 2023.

After a year of cross-border firefights, the Israeli army intensified its bombings against Hezbollah from September 23.

Israel says it wants to stop the Lebanese movement's fire toward the north of its territory and thus allow the return of tens of thousands of residents forced to flee.

At the same time, its army is relentlessly continuing its deadly offensive against Hamas in the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip.

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