Israel expanded attacks in Lebanon after an airstrike hit a residential building
The Houthis have fought for days: Israeli attacks on Hezbollah and Yemen, and the damage in Hodeida
The Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack toward Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Saturday when Netanyahu was arriving. The Israeli strikes hit the Hodeida seaport, as well as the power plants in Hodeida city, according to the Houthi media office. The Health Ministry said there were four dead and 40 wounded in the strikes.
Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said dozens of its aircraft struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to a recent attack. The military said it targeted power plants and sea port facilities in the city of Hodeida.
Hezbollah and Israel have been fighting for days. Israeli strikes across Lebanon have killed more than 1,000 people in less than two weeks and forced many to flee their homes, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The hits on Hezbollah have killed many people, but they haven’t hit the group’s weapons.
Meanwhile, wreckage from Friday’s strike that killed Nasrallah was still smoldering. Some people went to the site to check out what was left of their homes, others went for a look at the damage and still more went to pray and pay respects.
Hezbollah vs. Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya in the Middle East: Biden tells Air Force One
President joe Biden believes that an all out war in the Middle East must not happen and that he will speak with the Israeli prime minister soon. “It has to be,” Biden told reporters at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware as he boarded Air Force One for Washington.
In a video of a strike in Sidon, verified by the AP, a building swayed before collapsing as neighbors filmed. One TV station called on viewers to pray for a family caught under the rubble, posting their pictures, as rescuers failed to reach them. Fourteen medics were killed over two days in the south, according to the Health Ministry.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 105 people were killed around the country in airstrikes Sunday. The ministry says that 32 people were killed in two strikes around the city of Sidon. Separately, Israeli strikes in the northern province of Baalbek Hermel killed 21 people and wounded at least 47.
An official with Lebanon’s Civil Defense had earlier said that a member of the al-Jamaa al-Islamiya was killed in the strike and that 16 other people were wounded, but the Sunni militant group, which fights alongside Hezbollah, has not confirmed the death of any of its members.
Israel plans to bring back 60,000 of its citizens who were evacuated from the north a year ago. Hezbollah said it will stop rocket fire if there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
Kaouk was a veteran member of Hezbollah going back to the 1980s and served as Hezbollah’s military commander in southern Lebanon during the 2006 war with Israel. The United States announced sanctions against him in 2020.
Iran backed Hezbollah, a militant group in Lebanon, rose to regional prominence after it fought a war with Israel.
Israel’s strikes in Lebanon kill militant group Hamas and the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine, and two of its members in Tyre
A lot of people have been forced from their homes. The government estimates around 250,000 are in shelters, with three to four times as many staying with friends or relatives, or camping out on the streets.
On CNN, Kirby dodged a question about whether the Biden administration agrees with the way the Israelis are targeting Hezbollah leaders. The White House continues to call on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a 21-day temporary cease-fire floated by the U.S., France and other countries during the U.N. General Assembly last week.
“I think people are safer without him walking around,” Kirby said of Nasrallah. “But they will try to recover. We are watching to see what they do to fill the leadership vacuum. It is going to be difficult. … Much of their command structure has now been wiped out.”
John Kirby said that the Hezbollah command structure had been “wiped out” by Israel’s strikes in Lebanon, but he warned the group will quickly rebuild it.
Also early Monday, another strike killed a commander with the militant group Hamas, which has a presence in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps. Hamas claimed that the Al-Buss refugee camp in the southern port city of Tyre was bombed and that the leader of the group was killed along with his family.
A Palestinian leftist faction in Lebanon said three of its members were killed in the airstrike. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a statement early Monday that its military and security commanders in Lebanon, and a third member, were killed in the attack.
A journalist told the AP that an airstrike hit a multistory residential building. Videos showed ambulances and a crowd gathered near the building in a mainly Sunni district with a busy thoroughfare lined with shops.
Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah have knocked Israel off balance, and Israel is ready for a ground offensive in the Middle East
An official in the Middle East said that Israel was conducting intelligence-gathering raids inside southern Lebanon this week and was ready for a limited ground offensive.
An official in the region said that there was a chance of a ground incursion. The U.S. official and the official in the Middle East spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation.
In an interview on Israeli army radio on Monday, Hayman said that Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon had knocked Hezbollah off balance.
Lloyd Austin, the Defense Secretary, spoke with the Israel’s defense minister about the consequences of a strike against Iran. The U.S. is concerned about Iran-backed groups threatening U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria as the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed groups intensifies. Defense secretary Austin said the U.S. supports Israel dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure along the Lebanon Israel border so Hezbollah cannot threaten Israeli border towns. But he called on Israel to ultimately pivot to diplomacy.
The U.S. is concerned about retaliation to Israel’s moves by Iran and Iranian-supported militias in the region. It could endanger U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
Netanyahu landed in Israel shortly before air raid sirens wailed at the airport and throughout central Israel. The missile was shot down by the Israeli military.
Benjamin Netanyahu said that there is nowhere in the Middle East where Israel can’t reach Hezbollah and Hamas.
The army of Lebanon had moved back from the border after fighting with Israeli forces. A Lebanese army official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR this was a “redeployment” from forward positions vulnerable to an Israeli incursion.
On Monday, Hezbollah’s deputy leader said that the resistance forces were prepared for a ground engagement. That was despite a series of devastating Israeli attacks on Hezbollah leaders and members in recent weeks.
