Middle East Airlines’ evening flight from Dubai had just landed at Beirut International Airport. Then it hit. Photos and videos show a huge explosion in an area not far from the airport. The target is said to have been Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine. He is a cousin of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli attack one week ago. Many believe Safieddine was next in line to take over as head of the organisation. Both the Israeli Axios journalist Barak Ravid and The New York Times write that Safieddine was the target of the attack. However, both refer to anonymous Israeli sources. It is not clear whether Safieddine was killed in the attack. Images show a huge explosion in the suburb of Dahieh south of Beirut. Photo: Hussein Malla / AP Evacuation order in the south On Friday morning, Israel asked the inhabitants of more than 20 southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately. – Anyone who is in the vicinity of Hezbollah fighters, facilities or equipment is in immediate danger as they can become the target of military attacks at any time, writes Israel’s army spokesman, Avichay Adraee on X. – You must immediately evacuate north of Litani – the river, he writes, and adds that it is “forbidden to travel south”. In the last 24 hours, around 40 people have been killed in Israeli ground and air strikes in Lebanon, according to the country’s Ministry of Health, writes the BBC. More than 150 are injured. Around 1.2 million Lebanese have been forced to flee. In the past year, around 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to the health authorities. Most have been killed in the last two weeks. Close to top Iranian general There have been reports of several attacks in Beirut overnight. The state news agency National New Agency reports over ten airstrikes, AP writes. At dawn, smoke continues to rise from the suburb of Dahieh, close to the airport, south of Lebanon’s capital. It is in this area that Hezbollah is known to have its headquarters. Nasrallah was killed in an attack nearby. The night’s bombings were among the most powerful since the attack that killed Nasrallah. Like Nasrallah, Safieddine is also said to have been in a bunker underground. Hashem Safieddine spoke at a funeral for a Hezbollah commander in Beirut in June this year. Photo: ANWAR AMRO / AFP Safieddine has been with Hezbollah since the group was established in the early 1980s. He has served as “a political, spiritual and cultural leader”, writes The New York Times, but has also previously led the group’s military activities. Both Nasrallah and Safieddine have studied in Iran, Hezbollah’s main supporter. Safieddine was also a close friend of Qasem Soleimani, the top Iranian general who for many years led the Quds Force, the elite force in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Soleimani was killed in an American attack in Iraq in 2020. Facts about Hezbollah The Hezbollah movement emerged in the 1980s. The group currently consists of a political and a military branch. It mostly resides in southern Lebanon. Has been led by Hassan Nasrallah, who has not appeared in public for many years. On Saturday 28 September, Hezbollah confirmed that Nasrallah was killed in Israeli strikes in Beirut. In July 2006, armed conflict broke out again between Hezbollah and Israel. The fighting lasted one month. The Hezbollah militia is now militarily stronger than the Lebanese National Security Forces. They refuse to comply with a UN resolution demanding the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon. Hezbollah cooperates with Iran and Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules the Gaza Strip and is at war with Israel. Hezbollah began new attacks against Israel after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Since then, Israel and Hamas have attacked each other a number of times. In July, a rocket hits a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, killing 12 children. Shortly afterwards, Israel carries out an airstrike against Beirut which kills Hezbollah leader Fouad Shukur. The following day, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is killed in an attack in Iran’s capital, Tehran. In September, thousands of pagers and communications equipment belonging to Hezbollah members explode. On September 23, Israel begins a comprehensive bombing campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. On September 27, the leader Hassan Nasrallah is killed. On October 1, Israel enters Lebanon with army ground forces. Source: American Foreign Ministry, EU, NTB, Store norske lexikon Border crossing blocked The attack on Beirut occurred after Hezbollah sent several rockets at Israel on Thursday. Hezbollah claims it attacked the Sakhnin and Nesher military bases in the city of Haifa in northern Israel. Israel claims that around 230 rockets were fired from Lebanon on Thursday, writes Reuters. At dawn, smoke rose over Beirut after the night’s bombing. On Friday morning, Israeli bomb attacks destroyed the road at one of Lebanon’s border crossings with Syria. Israel claims the road was used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons into Lebanon. Country Director of Church Aid Benedicte Hafskjold describes the attack as terrible news. She herself fled from Lebanon to Syria recently. – I traveled through the northern border because it is a border that has less pressure. But the border which is now bombed and cannot be used is the border we usually always use, says Hafskjold. Benedicte Hafskjold in Church Aid. The picture is from February last year. Many hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have used the road in recent days to flee attacks, says Lebanon’s Transport Minister Ali Hamieh to Reuters. – Now you have to use other border crossings. These other borders are more provisional, and are not designed to receive several hundred thousand, which it is assumed will arrive over the next few days, says Hafskjold in the Church’s Emergency Aid. There is a fire in an apartment block close to the airport after the bomb attack on Friday night in South Beirut. Photo: Hussein Malla / AP Does not rule out attacks against oil facilities At the same time, Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon continues. On Tuesday, Iran launched around 180 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to the invasion. Israel has vowed to avenge the attack. Iran is ready to respond, said Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian when he visited Doha in Qatar on Thursday, writes Reuters. US President Joe Biden says he does not believe full-scale war will break out in the Middle East. On Thursday, he was asked by journalists how sure he is of this. – How sure are you that it won’t start raining? Listen: I don’t think there will be a full-scale war. I think we can avoid that, Biden answered the press in Washington. A large cloud of smoke rises after an Israeli attack on a village in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel, on October 3. Photo: Jim Urquhart / Reuters – But there is still much to do. Biden has previously said that he does not support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. But attacks on oil facilities could become a possibility. – We are discussing it, said Biden. The comment led to a 5 percent jump in oil prices, writes the BBC. Interested in abroad? Listen to the foreign affairs editor’s podcast: Published 04.10.2024, at 07.34 Updated 04.10.2024, at 09.49
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New attacks against Beirut – the target must have been Hezbollah summit – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
