Israel carries out airstrikes in Beirut and northern Lebanon

2024-10-05 16:10:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Israel expanded its bombardment in Lebanon on October 5, hitting suburbs south of Beirut with 12 airstrikes and attacking a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

This is the first time that Israel has attacked northern Lebanon. The attack on Camp Bedawi, near Tripoli in the north, killed a commander of Hamas - the Palestinian group designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union - as well as his wife and two daughters, the Palestinian group said.

Tripoli is located in the north and is far from most of the attacks carried out by Israel, which are mainly concentrated in southern Lebanon and Beirut.

Israel has killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon since a standoff between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began in October last year. Israel has also killed senior leaders of Hezbollah, the militant group and political party that controls most of southern Lebanon.

At least six people were killed in dozens of airstrikes that Israel carried out overnight and Saturday, Lebanon's state news agency reported.

Israel's military said special forces carried out targeted ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying rockets, rocket launchers, observation towers and weapons depots. The army also said it has destroyed tunnels it says Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.

Hezbollah has been declared a terrorist organization by the United States, while the European Union has blacklisted its armed wing, but not its political party, which has seats in the Lebanese Parliament.

Nearly 1,400 Lebanese, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed and an estimated 1.2 million others have been driven from their homes since Israel intensified airstrikes in late September aimed at damaging the Hezbollah group and driving it from the border. . Earlier in the week, Israel launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon. In recent days, nine Israeli soldiers have been killed during battles with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the army said.

In the past two weeks, almost 375,000 people have left Lebanon for Syria because of the fighting, according to Lebanese government data.

As the fighting continues in Lebanon, Israel is also continuing the war in Gaza against Hamas. On October 5, in northern Gaza and in the central part of the enclave, at least nine people, including two children, were killed during Israeli attacks, Palestinian health officials said.

Hamas attacked northern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people and kidnapping nearly 250 others, an attack that sparked the war in Gaza. As a result of the Israeli offensive, almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza./ REL