Beirut strikes target potential new Hezbollah chief, Israeli official says
Israeli strikes in Beirut overnight targeted Hashem Safieddine, a potential successor to late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, an Israeli official told CNN. It’s unclear if he was killed.
Israel’s aerial campaign in Lebanon is being conducted at an intensity comparable only to the first weeks of its bombardment in Gaza last year, an air warfare expert told CNN.
Israel’s escalated offensive in Lebanon has killed over 1,300 people since it began on September 17, according to a CNN tally.
A million people have been displaced in less than three weeks of Israel’s campaign, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. One humanitarian agency said Lebanon’s shelters were overflowing.
Here are the latest developments in the region:
- Strikes across Lebanon: The Israeli military said Thursday it had hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut. Across Lebanon, at least 37 people were killed and 151 wounded by Israeli strikes on Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said.
- Evacuations: Israel has issued evacuation orders for more villages in southern Lebanon, signaling a broadening of its ground incursion. The villages are in areas that now extend deeper into Lebanon, reaching up to 45 kilometers (28 miles) inside the country.
- Fleeing to Syria: Around 160,000 people have crossed the border from Lebanon to Syria since the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon last month, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Thursday.
- Bracing for retaliation: The Middle East is bracing for Israel’s response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this week. Growing escalations on multiple fronts have put the region on the precipice as the first anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel draws nearer.
- West Bank strikes: Israel said one of its airstrikes killed the leader of the Hamas network in the Tulkarem area in the West Bank, Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, on Thursday. Hamas condemned the attack, but did not confirm if Oufi was killed.
- Gaza death toll rises: Israeli airstrikes on the territory killed 99 people and wounded 169 on Thursday, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. The total death toll since October 7 has risen to 41,788, the ministry said.
Israel accused Hezbollah of launching approximately 230 projectiles from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Thursday.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, claimed to have carried out 32 varied attacks throughout the day, including rocket salvos on Israeli settlements and military bases and attacks on Israeli soldiers carrying out ground operations in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah was not the only Iran-backed group to have claimed to have attacked Israel on Thursday. In a separate incident, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of several Iran-backed militias, claimed responsibility for a drone attack in southern Israel.
The Israeli military said it intercepted a drone over southern Israel and no one was injured.
