The News
An Israeli strike on a residential area of Beirut Friday killed a top Hezbollah commander and members of the group’s elite special operations unit, Israel’s military said.
The attack killed eight people and left dozens more injured, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a “targeted strike” that killed Ibrahim Aqil, a senior commander for the Lebanese group. The United States accuses Aqil of involvement in two terrorist attacks in 1983 on the US embassy in Beirut and the US Marine Barracks that killed more than 300, offering a reward of up to $7 million for information on his whereabouts.
The strike came as Hezbollah and Israel exchanged rocket fire after a series of attacks that saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode across Lebanon earlier this week, raising fears of an all-out war between the two neighbors.
SIGNALS
Israel has lost faith in a diplomatic solution with Hezbollah
Israeli officials have concluded that diplomacy will not be enough to secure the northern border with Lebanon, Axios reported, and Israel’s defense minister has warned that “a new phase in the war” has begun. “The crucial question is whether Israel intends to ratchet up pressure with a ground offensive as a last resort,” or whether the Israeli attacks are “the initial stages preceding a ground operation” into Lebanon, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group wrote on X. Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has become the site of almost daily cross-border fighting between Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Force. Around 60,000 Israelis have fled the northern part of the country due to frequent attacks, and have become a thorn in the side of the government as frustration has mounted about their inability to return home.
Hezbollah vows to respond to Israeli attacks
Hezbollah vowed this week to respond to Israel’s attacks, with the group’s leader saying the country “will face a severe reckoning.” A Telegram channel affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard also warned that Tehran and its partners are plotting an “unprecedented and coordinated attack.” Nicholas Blanford, a Hezbollah expert at the Atlantic Council, said that the group has little choice but to retaliate, noting that “there’s going to be a lot of grassroots pressure” from the rank and file, even if the leadership has been reluctant to escalate tensions with Israel so far. Hezbollah’s regular attacks on northern Israel may have helped it locate blind spots in Israeli defenses, France24 reported, and the group is believed to have an arsenal of more than 130,000 rockets and missiles.
Gazans fear they are being forgotten as attention shifts to Lebanon
Meanwhile, some Gazans fear that they are already being forgotten, as international observers turn their attention elsewhere. “People see the attention going to the West Bank or Lebanon,” one Gazan told The New York Times, despite the situation “getting worse all the time.” US officials have come to the conclusion that a ceasefire is unlikely before US President Joe Biden leaves office early next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. “No deal is imminent,” one official told the Journal, adding that “I’m not sure it ever gets done.”