A man stands in a heavily damaged building that was hit by an overnight Israeli air strike on the town of Sarafand, between Sidon and Tyre in southern Lebanon. Picture: AFP
The Israeli military on Monday said that it had killed a top Hezbollah commander it accused of overseeing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, was “eliminated” in an air strike, the military said.
Rida “was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on Israeli Defence Forces (military) troops and oversaw the terrorist activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area”, the military said in a statement.
Israel has continued to pound Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the war between the two sides broke out in late September.
In recent weeks, Israel has killed several of the movement’s militant commanders and top leaders, including former chief Hassan Nasrallah.
The war began after nearly a year of cross-border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, with the Lebanese group firing rockets into northern Israel almost daily in support of its ally in Gaza, Hamas. Israel is fighting its deadliest war in Gaza against Hamas after the Palestinian militant group launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.
On Sunday, Israel pressed on with its campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza, launching several deadly strikes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited his country’s northern border.
Netanyahu’s visit came after an air strike killed at least three people near the southern Lebanon city of Sidon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, and as more bombs hit the country’s east.
“I want to be clear: with or without an agreement, the key to restoring peace and security in the north ...is first, ... to push Hezbollah back beyond the Litani River, secondly, to target any attempt to rearm and third, to respond firmly to any action taken against us,” Netanyahu told troops at the border.
Netanyahu’s border visit came as Israel’s military said more than 100 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory. Several were intercepted and some fell in unpopulated areas. Hezbollah later said it had also fired a barrage of missiles at an Israeli air force “technical base” in the northern coastal city of Haifa.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli strikes also hit near a hospital in Tebnine, a town in the south Lebanon district of Bint Jbeil.
The Health Ministry said the hospital sustained “severe damage” and seven people were wounded. Neither the Haret Saida strike nor those in Lebanon’s south were preceded by a warning to evacuate.
The ministry also said a strike near Tyre killed two rescue workers from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee.
Israel’s military did issue a warning for Lebanon’s eastern Baalbek area, saying it would attack Hezbollah-linked facilities. There were at least three strikes in the Baalbek area, where Hezbollah holds sway and which has seen heavy air raids over the past few days.
Also on Sunday, NNA reported the recovery of five out of 21 bodies buried under the rubble for about a week in the flashpoint southern town of Khiam.
The war has killed more than 1 940 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to Lebanese Health Ministry figures. Israel’s military says 38 soldiers have been killed since it began ground operations in Lebanon.
In Gaza, Israel’s military again reported “dozens” of militants killed in the northern Jabalia area where, since October 6, it has carried out an air and ground assault to stop Hamas regrouping.
Gaza rescuers and medics said that on Sunday, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 30 people across the territory.
In central Gaza, people crowded to receive sacks of flour from a UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) distribution point in Deir el-Balah.
On Monday, Israel notified the UN of its decision to sever ties with the agency supporting Palestinian refugees, after MPs voted to ban the organisation vital to the occupied territories.
The ban, which sparked global condemnation, including from key Israeli backer, the US, should come into force in late January, with the UN Security Council warning it would have severe consequences for millions of Palestinians.
Israel has accused a dozen employees of the agency, UNRWA, of participating in the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, the deadliest in Israeli history. UNRWA fired nine employees in the wake of the attack that sparked the Gaza war following the accusations.
An internal probe found that nine employees “may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October”.
UNRWA was tasked with assisting about 750000 Palestinians who had fled or been expelled from their homes during the war.
Its mandate has since been repeatedly extended in the absence of a solution for Palestinian refugees.
Cape Times
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