Israeli military says it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut strike

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike on Beirut, a day after the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack was marked by mourning and demonstrations around the world.

The military said the strike killed Suhail Husseini, who it said was responsible for overseeing logistics, budget and management of the militant group.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Monday, underlining their resilience in the face of a devastating Israeli offensive that has killed about 42,000 Palestinians, according to local medical officials, destroyed large areas and displaced around 90% of its population.

A year ago, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, which began firing rockets at Israel on October 8 2023.

On Monday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an Israeli strike in the country’s south, part of a wider bombardment, killed at least 10 firefighters. Hezbollah fired new barrages despite its recent losses.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said a reserve division has begun limited operations against Hezbollah in south-western Lebanon, in an apparent widening of its ground incursion.

The military said on Tuesday that the 146th Division is the first reserve division to enter Lebanon since it launched ground operations just inside the border last week.

The announcement came a day after the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate more than a dozen towns and villages in south-western Lebanon, including the coastal town of Naqoura, where UN peacekeepers have their headquarters.

Israel has called on people to evacuate several dozen communities across southern Lebanon, many of them north of a UN-declared buffer zone established after the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

Israel says its operations are aimed at halting a year of Hezbollah rocket attacks so that tens of thousands of its citizens can return to their homes in the north. Hezbollah has vowed to keep up the attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

The fighting, which escalated in mid-September, has displaced more than one million Lebanese.

The UN special co-ordinator for Lebanon and the head of the peacekeeping force deployed along the border with Israel have said a negotiated solution is the only way to restore stability and the time to act is now.

The statement by Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and Lieutenant General Aroldo Lazaro, of the UN peacekeeping force known as Unifil, came on the first anniversary of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group starting attacks on Israeli military posts along the border in support of its Hamas allies in the Gaza Strip.

Over the past weeks, the exchanges along the border have expanded into Israeli air strikes and Hezbollah missile attacks that are hitting deeper inside both countries.

Ms Hennis-Plasschaert and Lt Gen Lazaro said the Hezbollah attacks which began on October 8 2023 were in violation of the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

“Too many lives have been lost, uprooted, and devastated, while civilians on both sides of the Blue Line are left wanting for security and stability,” the statement said, referring to the border line along the Lebanon-Israel border.

“Today, one year later, the near-daily exchanges of fire have escalated into a relentless military campaign whose humanitarian impact is nothing short of catastrophic.”

It warned that further violence and destruction will neither solve the underlying issues nor make anyone safer in the long run.

“A negotiated solution is the only pathway to restore the security and stability that civilians on both sides so desperately want and deserve,” the statement said. “The time to act accordingly is now.”