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Israel claimed to have killed a top Hizbollah commander, Ibrahim Qobeissi, head of the Iran-backed militant group’s missiles division, in an air strike that rocked the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday
Hizbollah has not commented on the claim and it remains unclear whether Qobeissi was inside the building that was hit. Lebanese authorities said six people were killed and 15 injured in the attack.
“Qobeissi was a significant source of knowledge in the field of missiles and had close ties to senior military leaders in Hizbollah,” the Israel Defense Forces said, naming him as head of the group’s missiles and rockets force.
If confirmed, Tuesday’s strike would mark the latest in a string of killings of senior Hizbollah figures. On Saturday, an Israeli attack on Beirut killed the group’s special operations commander Ibrahim Aqil along with 15 other operatives, including what Israel said was the “senior chain of command of the Radwan Force”, an elite unit within the group.
The strikes have added pressure on the militant group, which has suffered one of its most devastating weeks on record after Israel’s military launched a massive bombardment of southern and eastern Lebanon, claiming on Tuesday to have hit 3,000 Hizbollah targets in the past two days.
At least 558 people have been killed, including 50 children and 94 women, since Israel began its intense air strikes on Monday. Nearly 2,000 more people were wounded, while tens of thousands have fled the bombing in southern Lebanon.
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In its statement about its latest strike on Beirut, the IDF said Qobeissi joined Hizbollah in the 1980s, after which he held several top roles in the militant group, including as a senior officer in its operations unit in southern Lebanon.
“In these roles, he was responsible for planning and executing numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers,” the IDF said, also claiming that other commanders from the division were with Qobeissi during the attack.
In the attack, Israel struck a six-storey apartment building in Ghobeiry, a densely populated southern suburb of Beirut where Hizbollah has a dominating presence.
A Hizbollah official shared an image on social media of the building with its top floor reduced to rubble. Debris littered the street, dust filled the air and cars were damaged near the site of attack, videos on social media showed.
It comes after Israel’s military chief said the IDF would continue to step up attacks on Hizbollah. IDF chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi on Tuesday said the militant group “must not be given a break” and pledged to “accelerate offensive operations”.
Israeli leaders have stated that they aim to continue the operation, which the army has named ‘Northern Arrows’, and says is focused on hitting Hizbollah’s weapons stores, until it became safe for residents of its northern regions, displaced by months of cross-border fire, to return to their homes.
Hizbollah on Tuesday said it had used a new rocket, the Fadi 3, in an attack on an Israeli military base. On Monday, the group began framing its attacks as being “in defence of Lebanon and its people”, where it had previously described them as responses to various Israeli strikes as well as steps in support of the people of Gaza. A Hizbollah official said defending Lebanon had become the “main idea”.
Several international airlines suspended flights to Beirut and Tel Aviv. US national security spokesperson John Kirby urged Americans in Lebanon to leave the country while commercial flights were sill available.
“We want to make sure that there are still commercial options available for Americans to leave, and they should be leaving now while those options are available,” Kirby told ABC News.
World leaders meeting at the UN General Assembly called for a halt to the escalation and warned the fighting was on the verge of tipping into an all-out regional war.
“No country stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East,” G7 foreign ministers said.
US President Joe Biden said diplomacy was the “only path” to end tensions between Israel and Hizbollah.
“Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest, even though the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” Biden said while addressing the UN on Tuesday.
He also called for an end to the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. His administration has been pressing for a ceasefire there which is also seen as connected to the tension on Israel’s northern border.
“Now is the time for the parties to finalise its terms . . . and end this war.”
Cartography by Steven Bernard and Chris Cook