ISRAEL carried out another series of punishing airstrikes on Friday, hitting suburban Beirut and cutting off the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria for tens of thousands of people fleeing the Israeli bombardment of the Hezbollah militant group. The overnight blasts in Beirut’s southern suburbs sent huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shook buildings kilometres away in the Lebanese capital. Additional strikes sent people running for cover in streets littered with rubble in the Dahiyeh neighbourhood, where at least one building was levelled and cars were burned out. The Israeli military said, it targeted Hezbollah’s central intelligence headquarters around midnight. It did not say who it was aiming for or if any militants were killed in that strike, but it claimed to have killed 100 Hezbollah fighters in the last 24 hours.

 

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area. Some 1,400 Lebanese, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed and some 1.2 million driven from their homes since Israel escalated its strikes in late September aiming to cripple Hezbollah and push it away from the countries’ shared border. Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched about 100 rockets into Israel on Friday, the Israel military said. The Israeli military also said that a strike in Beirut the day before killed Mohammed Rashid Skafi, the head of Hezbollah’s communications division. The military said in a statement that Skafi was “a senior Hezbollah terrorist who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000” and was “closely affiliated” with high-up Hezbollah officials. Thursday’s strike along the Lebanon-Syria border, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Beirut, led to the closure of the road near the busy Masnaa Border Crossing — the first time it has been cut off since Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire almost a year ago. Israel said it targeted the crossing because it was being used by Hezbollah to transport military equipment across the border. It said fighter jets had struck a tunnel used to smuggle weapons from Iran and other proxies into Lebanon.

 

Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weaponry through Syria from Iran. Associated Press video footage showed two huge craters on each side of the road. People got out of cars, unable to pass, carrying bags of their possessions as they crossed on foot. More than 2,50,000 Syrians and 82,000 Lebanese have fled across the border into Syria during the escalation of the past two weeks. There are a half-dozen crossings between the two countries, and most remain open. Israel launched its ground escalation in Lebanon on Tuesday, and its forces have been clashing with Hezbollah militants in a narrow strip along the border. Israel has vowed to put an end to Hezbollah fire into northern Israel, after nearly a year of exchanges between the two sides that drove tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border. Israeli strikes over the past two weeks killed some of Hezbollah’s key members, including Hassan Nasrallah. On Thursday, Israel warned people to evacuate communities in southern Lebanon, including areas beyond the buffer zone declared by the United Nations after Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006. Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters on Friday that the ground operations were limited, aimed at rooting out Hezbollah militants and making the border safe for northern residents of Israel to return to their homes.

 

“First of all, our mission is to make sure they’re (Hezbollah) not there,” Shoshani said. “Afterwards we will talk about how we make sure they don’t come back.” An umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it carried out three drone strikes on Friday in northern Israel. In recent months, the group has regularly claimed drone strikes launched at Israel, but the strikes have rarely landed. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was in Beirut to meet Lebanese officials, warned, if Israel carries out an attack on Iran, Tehran would retaliate more powerfully than it did this week when it launched at least 180 missiles into Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Hezbollah. Meanwhile, Israel carried out its deadliest strike in West Bank since Gaza war began, hitting a cafe in the Tulkarem refugee camp. At least 18 Palestinians were killed, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

 

 

 LEADING the Friday prayers from Tehran’s Grand Mosalla Mosque, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed Iran’s attack on Israel earlier this week, calling it “completely legal and legitimate work”. Khamenei delivered a part of his sermon in Arabic as a message for the entire Islamic world, “especially Lebanon and Palestine”, as thousands gathered at the venue to hear him and also attend the commemoration ceremony of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah who was killed in Israeli Air Force’s strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, last week. “The brilliant work of our armed forces two or three nights ago was completely legal and legitimate work,” the Iranian Supreme Leader told the huge gathering which also included the country’s President, Masoud Pezeshkian. “The enemy of Iran is the enemy of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, and Iraq.

 

The enemy is the same and works everywhere with a special method, but the control room is the same,” he stated. Khamenei said that he believed it was necessary to honour “brother” Nasrallah during the Friday prayer as he was an “admired personality” in the Islamic world and the “shining jewel” of Lebanon. “Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah brought assurance and courage to the fighters and seekers of truth. The scope of his popularity and influence extended beyond Lebanon, Iran, and Arab countries, and now his martyrdom will increase his influence even more,” he said. “We must close the belt of defence, independence and dignity - from Afghanistan to Yemen and from Iran to Gaza and Lebanon in all Islamic countries.