Tel Aviv: Israel on Sunday carried out multiple airstrikes targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen and launched a fresh barrage against the Hezbollah group in Lebanon, which is still reeling from a series of deadly blows to its command structure as well as the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Lebanon’s health ministry said that airstrikes near the southern city of Sidon and in the northern province of Baalbek-Hermel killed nearly 50 more people and injured 47, as Israel’s military continued its bombardment of Hezbollah targets.
The Israeli military also stated that it had struck several Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, including power stations and a seaport, using dozens of aircraft in response to a recent attack on Israel. The Houthis had launched a ballistic missile attack on Ben Gurion airport on Saturday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving.
According to initial reports from Houthi-backed media, the strikes killed four people and wounded more than 30.
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that the country would strike at foes regardless of distance. “Our message is clear—for us, no place is too far,” Gallant said in a statement issued by his office after he monitored the strikes from an air force command and control room approximately 2,000 kilometres from Yemen.
“In a large-scale air operation today, dozens of Air Force aircraft, including fighter jets, refuelling planes, and reconnaissance aircraft, attacked military-use targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the Ras Issa and Hodeida areas of Yemen,” Israeli military spokesman Captain David Avraham said in a statement to AFP.
“The IDF (military) targeted power stations and a seaport used for oil imports,” the military statement noted.
In July, Israel also struck Hodeida port, causing what a port official estimated to be at least $20 million in damage, following a Houthi drone strike that penetrated Israel’s air defences and killed a civilian in Tel Aviv.
The sites targeted on Sunday were used by the Houthis, who seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014, to “transfer Iranian weaponry to the region and supplies for military needs,” the statement added.
The Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah station reported on Sunday that Israeli strikes targeted “the ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa,” as well as two power stations, after previously announcing “Israeli aggression on Hodeida.”
The Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV stated that a port worker and three engineers were killed, with 33 others wounded in the “initial toll,” adding that ambulance and rescue teams were still searching for missing individuals.
Renewed strikes in Lebanon kill dozens: The Israeli military announced on Sunday evening that it hit over a hundred mpre Hezbollah targets, in Lebanon during a new barrage “a short while ago,” as frequent cross-border air raids continued.
The strikes come two days after Israel’s killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike in Beirut on Friday.
The body of Nasrallah has been recovered, a source close to the movement told AFP on Sunday. “The funeral ceremony and his burial have not yet been arranged,” the source added.
“During the intelligence-based strikes, the (air force) struck approximately 120 Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon and deep inside Lebanese territory,” a military statement said, adding that the targets included Hezbollah’s infrastructure and “significant headquarters used by Hezbollah’s different units.”
Lebanon’s health ministry reported that Israeli air strikes killed 21 people on Sunday in eastern Lebanon, which has been subjected to a wave of attacks for nearly a week.
“The Israeli enemy raids on Baalbek-Hemel have killed 21 people and wounded 47,” the ministry stated, providing a provisional toll, as an AFP journalist reported heavy raids on Sunday in the Baalbek area.
Lebanese media reported dozens of strikes in the central, eastern and western Bekaa and in the south, besides strikes in Beirut. The strikes have targeted buildings where civilians were living, and the death toll was expected to rise.
In a widely circulated video of a strike in Sidon, verified by The Associated Press, a building swayed before collapsing as neighbours filmed the strike.
On one TV station, the broadcaster called on viewers to pray for a family caught under the rubble, posting their pictures, as rescuers failed to reach them. The Lebanese health ministry reported Sunday that at least 14 medics were killed in two days in the south.
In one attack, which Israel called a “precise strike” in southern Beirut, a witness told AFP a rocket hit a building, which collapsed instantly.
Israeli air strikes have decimated Hezbollah’s senior command structure, with Nasrallah’s right-hand man, Fuad Shukr, head of the elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Aqil, and others among the dead.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP the target had been Abu Ali Rida, a commander of one of the group’s sectors in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah later said Rida was “fine.”
A Hezbollah statement on Sunday confirmed that the group’s top commander in south Lebanon, Ali Karake, had also been killed on Friday.
Hezbollah also confirmed Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of the militant group’s Central Council, was killed on Saturday, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader slain in Israeli strikes in a little over a week.
The past week’s waves of strikes targeting Hezbollah have intensified fears in Lebanon and the wider region of more violence to come.
Meanwhile, wreckage from the strike on Friday that killed Nasrallah was still smouldering. AP journalist saw smoke over the rubble as people flocked to the site, some to check on what’s left of their homes and others to pay respects, pray, or simply to see the destruction.
In response to the dramatic escalation in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Hezbollah significantly increased its attacks in the past week, from several dozen to several hundred daily, the military said. The attacks injured several people and caused damage, but most of the rockets and drones were intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems or fell in open areas.
The army says its strikes have degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities, and the number of launches would be much higher if Hezbollah had not been hit.
Meanwhile, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon had “wiped out” Hezbollah’s command structure, but he warned the group will work quickly to rebuild it.
“I think people are safer without him walking around,” Kirby said of Nasrallah. “But they will try to recover. We’re watching to see what they do to try to fill this leadership vacuum. It’s going to be tough…Much of their command structure has now been wiped out.”
Kirby, who spoke to CNN, sidestepped questions about whether the Biden administration agrees with how the Israelis are targeting Hezbollah leaders. The White House continues to call on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a 21-day temporary cease-fire that was floated by the US, France and other countries last week as world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly.
