- By Aditya Jha
- Sun, 20 Oct 2024 04:04 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
In a new revelation on Sunday, Israel claimed that its air force attacked Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in Beirut as well as an underground workshop for the production of weapons. Israel, in a statement, has also claimed that its fighter jets killed three Hezbollah commanders, including Alhaj Abbas Salameh, a senior figure in the group's southern command; Radja Abbas Awache, a communications expert; and Ahmad Ali Hussein, who it said was responsible for strategic weapons development.
However, it was not clear the commanders were killed in the attack on the headquarters or got eliminated in separate actions. The Iran-backed militant organisation Hezbollah has made no immediate comment on the killings of its commanders. Early on Sunday, two Israeli strikes targeted the Harat Hreik neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut, hitting a residential building near Bahman Hospital, Lebanon's state-run national news agency said.
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News agency Reuters claimed that rising smoke could be seen from Beirut's suburbs on Sunday morning. However, it was not clear if this was a result of the same strike. Israel's military claimed on Saturday that it destroyed tunnel shafts and underground infrastructure in southern Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's deputy commander of the Bint Jbeil area on Friday.
Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted a year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets in support of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. It further escalated when Israel eliminated the chief of the militant organisation, Hasan Nasrallah, in an air strike. Several other top officials of Hezbollah were also eliminated in the air strikes from Israel. Since October 2023, more than 2,400 people have been killed, according to Lebanon's health ministry, with more than 1.2 million people displaced, while 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, according to Israeli authorities.
While Israel has claimed that they will continue striking Lebanon until the militant organisation stops attacking Israel. However, Hezbollah has claimed that the people of Gaza faced a massacre by Israel and they should initiate the ceasefire.