War in the Middle East: Hezbollah's number 2 elected to lead the movement, northern Gaza pounded

Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian group, has appointed Naïm Qassem to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed last September by an Israeli raid. The Israeli army continues its offensives in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Essentials

• Hezbollah announces that it has elected its former number 2, Naïm Qassem, to head the movement after the death of Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed September 27 by an Israeli bombing. “The Chopra Council has agreed to elect Naïm Qassem as Secretary General of Hezbollah. We ask God to help him in his mission in the leadership of Hezbollah and its resistance,” an official statement said.
• On Tuesday, 93 Palestinians were killed after an Israeli raid in the northern Gaza Strip, in Beit Lahya, the spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defense said. The attack reportedly targeted a five-story residential building, leaving dozens of people injured, and victims still buried under the rubble.
• On Monday, the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, adopted a bill banning UNRWA's activities in Israel. A decision that the United States and the UN had nevertheless opposed. Within UNRWA, on the Palestinian authorities' side, and internationally, reactions were swift. Deemed “scandalous” or worrying to some, the vote for this ban, which “contradicts the Charter of the United Nations and violates the obligations of the State of Israel under international law”, could also “set a dangerous precedent”, said UNRWA chief.

Latest updates

17:15 – Iran wants to increase its military budget by 200%

This Tuesday, the Iranian government proposed a 200% increase in its military budget over one year, starting March 21, 2025. An announcement that comes as the country contributes financially to Hezbollah's assaults, participating in the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, which recently protected itself as far as Lebanon, an area in which Hezbollah is largely established. with several strongholds. 

16:30 – Israeli tanks enter southern Lebanon

Several Israeli tanks have entered southern Lebanon, as far as the town of Khiam, less than 6km from the border, the largest incursion in this area, the official Lebanese news agency, ANI, said. “A large number of tanks of the Israeli occupation army” were stationed on a hill east of Khiam, the agency said.

15:20 – 43,061 dead in the Gaza Strip

New toll in the Gaza Strip. 43,061 people have died in the Palestinian enclave since the start of the war with Israel, according to estimates by the Hamas government's health ministry. In the last 24 hours, 41 people have lost their lives, the press release states.

14:40 – Israel: One person killed by rockets fired from Lebanon

One person was killed on Tuesday by rockets fired from Lebanon towards Maalot in northern Israel. “We saw an unconscious man, without a pulse and not breathing (…) His injury was critical and we had to declare him dead,” Magen David Adom said in a statement. In total, around 50 projectiles were hit fired from Lebanon into Israel on Tuesday.

13:50 – Hezbollah's underground command center destroyed ?

On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had destroyed Hezbollah's underground command center and another bunker storing explosives in southern Lebanon. “The base was built eight meters underground and was discovered during recent ground operations in the region,” an army statement said. In total, nearly half a ton of explosives was stored in this bunker. 

13:05 – 93 dead in Gaza in the attack on Beit Lahya

The Israeli bombing of Beit Lahya has left 93 dead, according to the Gazan Civil Defense, after an initial toll of 55 dead was established earlier in the day. The victims are mainly women and children. Dozens of people are reportedly injured. It is indeed a residential building that was targeted in the Palestinian enclave.

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43,061. This is the number of deaths in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas terrorist offensive on October 7, 2023 in Israel. A figure communicated by the Ministry of Health of the Hamas government, on Monday, October 14, 2024, which reveals the intensity of the fighting that has now lasted for more than a year. Over the months, tensions have intensified, and as of October 27, 2023, Israel extended its ground operation to Gaza. The goal for Netanyahu and the IDF is clear: to “annihilate” Hamas. A week-long ceasefire was nevertheless in place in November 2023. After a major leap forward, on April 13, 2024, Iran launched its first massive attack on Israel. Allied to Hamas, Iran then fired nearly 350 explosive drones and missiles at the Hebrew state. An attack in response to missiles fired at the embassy in Damascus in Syria on April 1, in which 11 people lost their lives, including seven Islamic Revolutionary Guards.

On Tuesday, September 17, 2024, a new type of attack broke into the war. Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies exploded. Twelve dead and nearly 3,000 injured were reported in Lebanon. Since its coordinated explosions, Israel has continued to strike Lebanon with air and ground raids. More than 1,000 people were killed in IDF strikes and thousands of Lebanese were forced to be displaced. On October 1, 2024, Iran responded by sending nearly 200 ballistic missiles directly to Israel. Since then, the two countries have been engaged in a merciless war, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatening on October 8, 2024 that Lebanon would experience “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza” if the country's population did not “free itself” from Hezbollah. Remarks described as “provocation” by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot.

On Monday, October 14, 2024, the Lebanese Hezbollah threatened Israel with new attacks in a press release. As a reminder, Hezbollah had struck Haifa two days earlier, killing four Israeli soldiers and injuring no fewer than 60. At the beginning of the week, the terrorist organization indicated that “the resistance (…) promises the enemy”. The raid carried out “south of Haifa is only a foretaste of what awaits it if it decides to continue its aggression against our people”, it threatens. According to Palestinian doctors quoted by the Associated Press, the courtyard of a hospital in the Gaza Strip was then shelled by the Israeli army, killing at least four people and setting fire to a camp for displaced people.