Israel Hits Central Beirut as Raids Widen After Nasrallah Death
(Bloomberg) -- Israel bombed the center of Beirut for the first time in almost a year of hostilities with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as the military steps up air assaults following the killing of the Iran-backed group’s chief last week.
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The strike on a building in the heart of the Lebanese capital early Monday killed three senior members of a Palestinian group called the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Lebanon’s state-media reported.
Hamas, meanwhile, said the head of its Lebanese branch, Fatah Sherif Abu Alamin, died in an Israeli strike on his home in southern Lebanon.
The attacks signal no let up in Israel’s campaign to paralyze its enemies in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region after assassinating Hezbollah’s long-elusive leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it the biggest-ever blow to Iran’s network of proxy militias spanning from Gaza to Yemen, Syria and Iraq.
Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel also continued. Israel said it intercepted a drone over its Mediterranean waters. The country’s Army Radio said it was probably headed toward an offshore rig for the Karish natural gas field.
Israel has said it’s preparing a potential ground incursion into southern Lebanon, a step the US and other world powers fear would risk a drawn-out conflict that might directly pit Tehran against Washington. Israeli strikes on Lebanon in the past two weeks have killed at least 1,000 people, including 100 in the last 24 hours, and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes, according to local officials.
While most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership has been killed and much of its arsenal destroyed, officials say it retains substantial capability to inflict losses on Israeli forces and fire missiles across the border.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot arrived in Beirut on Sunday and is due to meet Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday. He’ll also see House Speaker Nabih Berri, who’s a close parliamentary ally of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah began cross-border rocket attacks on Oct. 8 in solidarity with Hamas, a day after the Palestinian group staged an unprecedented attack in Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage. Israel’s military response has killed at least 41,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are designated as terrorist groups by the US.
Hezbollah is reported to be selecting Nasrallah’s successor. His nephew, Hashem Safieddine, is seen as the front-runner.
Netanyahu gave the order Friday to assassinate Nasrallah from his hotel room in New York, just before giving a defiant speech to the United Nations General Assembly that rejected a US-backed push for a cease-fire in Lebanon. Washington, Israel’s closest ally, got only a last-minute heads up as its latest bid to stop the violence failed.
Friday’s massive strike against Nasrallah — it leveled several buildings and killed a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, among others — was the latest in a series of dramatic attacks. They began earlier this month when thousands of pagers and walkie talkies belonging to Hezbollah members exploded.
Iran is in no rush to retaliate for now, judging by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s first reaction. President Masoud Pezeshkian also stopped short of pledging a direct and immediate attack on Israel — and at the UN last week in New York, speaking before Nasrallah’s death, he struck a relatively restrained tone.
The US believes Iran is unlikely to hurry to escalate tensions, in part because of how weakened its most important proxy now is, according to a person familiar with American policy. Moreover, when Iran attacked Israel directly in April, its hundreds of missiles and drones were almost all intercepted.
Both Hezbollah and Iran have been weakened by recent events and have few options, the person said.
Netanyahu called Nasrallah’s death “necessary” to enable tens of thousands of Israelis who had fled Hezbollah’s attacks over the past 11 months to return to their homes in northern Israel. But in a video address, he had a warning for his people: “In the coming days, we will face significant challenges.”
The US said it’s beefing up its already-substantial military presence in the region, a signal to Tehran about the dangers of reacting too aggressively.
Domestically, the Israeli prime minister has bolstered his position, giving him more leeway to conduct the conflicts on his terms. A longtime right-wing rival, Gideon Saar, joined Netanyahu’s government on Sunday as a minister without portfolio.
That’s expanded the coalition’s strength in the parliament and reduced the virtual veto that far-right members have held over Israel’s leader since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7. Some of those members have regularly threatened to collapse the government if Netanyahu agrees to a cease-fire with Hamas or pushes for more ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the military.
--With assistance from Dana Khraiche and Marissa Newman.
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