- Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiye, a Hezbollah stronghold, came under heavy attack on Thursday when Israel ordered people to leave their homes in parts of the district.
- The airstrikes reportedly targeted Hezbollah official Hashem Saffieddine, the alleged successor to the group’s former chief Hassan Nasrallah, in an underground bunker. Reports claim that Saffieddin’s fate is unclear.
- Dahiya has seen a barrage of Israeli missiles for the past few weeks, including the bombs that killed Nasrallah a week ago.
- Hezbollah also said it launched new attacks targeting Israel’s “Sakhanin Base” for military industries in Haifa Bay on northern Israel’s Mediterranean coast and the “Nesher Base” in Haifa.
- The latest clash between Israel and Hezbollah comes two days after Iran fired more than 180 missiles at Israel in response to the Israeli killings of Nasrallah and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh – the largest attack ever on its regional foe.
- Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations told a news channel that the country’s war cabinet was considering its options and would “not sit idle” following the Iranian attack. “What happened was an unprecedented response and as I said in the Security Council it will be a very strong, painful response. It will happen soon,” Danny Danon told CNN.
- US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that we “can avoid” all-out war in the Middle East. When asked how confident he was that a full-scale war in the region could be avoided, he told reporters at the White House, “I don’t think a full-scale war is going to happen. I think we can avoid it.” Can be postponed.” “But there’s still a lot to do, there’s still a lot to do,” he said.
- Biden was also asked whether he would support an Israeli attack on Iran’s oil facilities. “We are discussing that,” he told reporters, a comment that caused global oil prices to rise.
- Nearly 2,000 people have been killed since Israeli attacks on Lebanon began last year, most of them in the past two weeks.
- The clashes began when Hezbollah, in support of Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza a year ago, fired missiles at Israel.