Israel carries out new round of air raids on southern Beirut

The Israeli army carried out on Thursday nightOn Friday, a new round of strikes was carried out on southern Beirut, a stronghold of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, in one of the most violent raids since Israel stepped up its bombing campaign on the country on 23 ;September.

The Israeli army said on Thursday that it would continue to inflict “severe blows” on Hezbollah, after three days of ground fighting against the Islamist movement armed attacks in southern Lebanon that cost the lives of nine of its soldiers.

According to official figures, nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in a year of cross-border violence between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, including more than a thousand since September 23. The Lebanese government estimates the number of displaced people at around 1.2 million.

On Thursday evening, “Israel struck the southern suburbs (of Beirut) eleven times in a row,” said a source close to the Islamist movement, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official Lebanese news agency ANI reported “more than ten consecutive strikes” in “one of the most violent raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut since the start of the Israeli war against Lebanon.”

– Balls of flames –

According to AFP correspondents, the strikes set off car alarms and shook buildings in a vast perimeter.

AFP footage showed giant balls of flame rising from the target site, along with thick smoke and flares.

The strikes resonated as far as mountainous areas outside Beirut, according to ANI news agency.

“During the night, the ground shook beneath our feet. The sky lit up” from the force of the strikes and “the neighborhood became a ghost town,” Mohammed Sheaito, a 31-year-old taxi driver in Beirut's southern suburbs, told AFP.

“We are afraid for our children, and this war is going to be long,” said Fatima Salah, a 35-year-old nurse. years.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced on the night of Thursday to Friday the death of 37 people in 24 hours in the various Israeli strikes.

One of Thursday's strikes hit Hezbollah's “intelligence headquarters” near Beirut, according to the Israeli army.

Ruins of a building destroyed by an Israeli bombing in the southern suburbs of Beirut, October 3, 2024 © AFP – –

According to the American website Axios, which cites three unidentified Israeli officials, Hashem Safieddine, potential successor to Hassan Nasrallah at the head of Hezbollah, was targeted by Israeli attacks on Wednesday evening. The Israeli army, questioned by AFP, has not yet confirmed this information.

Nearly a year after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7, 2023 by the Palestinian Hamas on Israeli soil, Israel announced in mid-September that it was moving most of its operations to the northern front, on the Lebanese border.

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Israel has said it will fight Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, until “victory” to allow the return of about 60,000 border residents displaced over the past year by the Shiite movement's relentless rocket fire to northern Israel.

– Khamenei's sermon –

Remains of an Iranian missile in the Negev desert, near Arad, Israel, on October 3, 2024 after an attack by Tehran © AFP – MENAHEM KAHANA

The war now open between Israel and Hezbollah is accompanied by an escalation between Israel and Iran, which fired 200 missiles on Israeli territory on Tuesday, leading to cross threats of retaliation between the two countries and new fears concerning a conflagration in the Middle East.

Iran has stated that it is responding to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah who died on September 27 in an Israeli strike near Beirut, and that of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas who was killed on July 31 in an attack in Tehran attributed to Israel.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is to lead the weekly prayer at 10:30 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on Friday and deliver a sermon which could set the tone for Iran's plans.

The rare speech comes three days before the first anniversary of Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israeli soil.

US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, October 3, 2024 © AFP – Mandel NGAN

“We can avoid” a “total war” in the Middle East, US President Joe Biden said Thursday, as the international community fears a full-scale conflict in the region.

Earlier Thursday, he said he was “in discussions” with Israel about possible strikes on oil facilities in Iran, a country that is among the ten largest oil producers. Oil prices jumped after his statement.

The G7 countries expressed their “deep concern” over “the deteriorating situation” in the Middle East.

– “Bodies torn to pieces” –

In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority announced Thursday evening the death of 18 people in an Israeli strike on the Tulkarem refugee camp. The Israeli army claimed to have “eliminated” a local Hamas leader, Zahi abd al-Razaq, alias Zahi Oufi.

This is the deadliest strike in the West Bank since 2000, a source within the Palestinian security services told AFP. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

A witness, social worker Alaa Sroji, explained to AFP that an Israeli plane had “hit a cafeteria”. There are “children, young people whose bodies are torn to pieces,” he said.

This photo released by the Israeli army on October 3, 2024 shows Israeli troops operating in the Gaza Strip © Israel Army – –

The Israeli offensive continues in parallel on the Gaza Strip, devastated and besieged for a year.

On Thursday, seven people were killed by Israeli strikes in different sectors of this Palestinian territory, according to the Civil Defense, which also reported five deaths in new strikes on Friday.

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