Israel says it killed top Hezbollah commander

by ABBY SEWELL

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel said Tuesday it killed a senior commander of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket unit, sending the Israeli army back into fighting with Hezbollah and bringing the death toll from intense Israeli bombardment to about 560.

Military officials said Ibrahim Kobeisi, who they claimed was responsible for the launches against Israel, was killed in an attack on Beirut. The military said Kobeisi was with “other key commanders” during the attack, but officials did not say whether any of the others were killed or wounded.

Meanwhile, thousands of people fled southern Lebanon with the support of both sides. on the brink of full-scale war.

Displaced families They slept in hastily erected shelters in schools in Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon. With hotels quickly reaching capacity or rooms priced beyond the means of many families, those unable to find shelter slept in their cars, in parks or by the sea.

Issa Baydoun fled the village of Shikhine in southern Lebanon when it was bombed and arrived in Beirut with his extended family in a convoy of cars. They slept in vehicles on the side of the road after discovering that the shelters were full.

“We fought hard on the way to get here,” he said. Baydoun rejected Israel’s claim that it only hit military targets.

“We evacuated our homes because Israel targeted and attacked civilians,” he said. “So we left our homes to protect our children.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon said on Tuesday that one of its employees and her young son were among those killed in the Bekaa region on Monday, while a cleaner contracted by UNHCR was killed in an attack in the south. One employee’s husband and one of her children were seriously injured.

Well-wishers posted on social media offering up empty apartments or rooms in their homes. Volunteers set up a kitchen to cook meals for displaced people at an empty Beirut gas station that first became a volunteer hub after the city’s devastating 2020 port explosion.

In the eastern city of Baalbek, the state-run National News Agency reported that citizens were queuing at bakeries and gas stations to meet their basic needs ahead of a wave of strikes set to begin on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, there has been heavy traffic congestion at the border crossing with Syria as a result of people fleeing from Lebanon to Syria. neighboring country.

The Lebanese Hezbollah organization announced that it fired missiles at eight locations in Israel during the night and morning hours, including an explosives factory in Zichron Yaakov, 60 kilometers from the border.

The Israeli military said 55 rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Tuesday morning, setting fires and damaging buildings. The Galilee Medical Center, a hospital in northern Israel, said two patients arrived with minor head injuries from a rocket that hit near their car. Several others were being treated for minor injuries from running to shelters when the alarms sounded and from traffic accidents.

Israeli military officials said they launched dozens of airstrikes on Hezbollah targets overnight, including a cell firing rockets, while tanks and artillery units hit targets near the border.

They also said they carried out a “targeted attack” in Beirut, but did not give details. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said six people were killed and 15 wounded in the attack in a southern suburb where Hezbollah has a strong presence. The country’s National News Agency said the attack destroyed three floors of a six-story apartment building.

Renewed change comes after Monday’s attacks highest death rate on any given day in Lebanon since Israel and Hezbollah began a brutal month-long war in 2006.

Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah’s weapons caches. Data from American fire-tracking satellites analyzed by The Associated Press on Tuesday showed Israel’s airstrikes targeting southern Lebanon, covering an area of ​​more than 650 square miles.

NASA’s Fire Information System for Resource Management is often used to track wildfires in rural areas of the United States. However, it can also be used to track flares and burns following airstrikes. This is especially true if an airstrike ignites flammable materials such as munitions or fuel on the ground.

Data from Monday showed significant fires burning in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. Several areas were intense, multiple fires, including near the southern coastal town of Naqoura, which hosts the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL. Others were in mountainous rural areas or villages.

The edges are visible On the brink of war after tensions have escalated over the past 11 months, Hezbollah has been firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians and their ally, Hamas, an Iranian-backed group. In GazaHamas is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Hezbollah is the most powerful political and military actor in Lebanon and is considered the largest paramilitary force in the Arab world.

Israel has responded with increased airstrikes and targeted killings of Hezbollah commanders, while threatening a wider offensive.

Thousands of Lebanese fled the southern part of the country The biggest wave of displacement since the month-long war began 18 years ago began on Monday after the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of people from areas where it claims Hezbollah has positioned rocket launchers and other weapons.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that at least 558 people, including 50 children and 94 women, have been killed and more than 1,800 injured in attacks since Monday – a frightening toll for Lebanon. a country still shaken from deadly attack on communications devices last week.