Israeli military announces killing of Nabil Qaouq, member of Hezbollah\u2019s central council in a strike on Saturday
\n Tel Aviv
\nIsrael said on Sunday that it killed another senior Hezbollah official in an air strike on the Lebanese capital after assassinating its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
\nIsrael announced the killing of Nabil Qaouq, a member of Hezbollah\u2019s central council in a strike Saturday, adding that its air force continued to hit \u201cdozens\u201d more targets around Lebanon on Sunday.
\nIsraeli strikes have in recent months decimated Hezbollah\u2019s senior command structure, with Nasrallah\u2019s right-hand man Fuad Shukr, head of the elite Radwan Force Ibrahim Aqil and others among the dead.
\nThe past week\u2019s waves of strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon have also plunged the tiny Mediterranean country and the wider region into fear of even more violence to come.
\nHezbollah launched low-intensity cross-border strikes on Israeli troops after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, sparking the war in the Gaza Strip.
\nNearly a year later, Israel announced a shift in its focus to battling Hezbollah on its northern front.
\nHezbollah confirmed Nasrallah\u2019s killing in a massive strike on Friday on the group\u2019s main bastion in south Beirut.
\n\u201cWe all started crying,\u201d Maha Karit told AFP in Beirut after Nasrallah\u2019s death.
\nWith Lebanon already mired in political and economic crisis, the escalation has pushed it to the brink, as the bombardment has killed over 700 people in a week, according to health ministry figures.
\nThe Israeli military said on Sunday its air force had struck \u201cdozens of Hezbollah targets\u201d after carrying out \u201chundreds\u201d of strikes on Friday and Saturday.
\nIt then announced that Qaouq was \u201cstruck and eliminated\u201d in a strike on south Beirut on Saturday.
\nHezbollah has yet to officially announce Qaouq\u2019s death but a source close to the group said he had been killed.
\nLebanon\u2019s National News Agency reported a string of raids in and around the city of Baalbek in the east.
\nAt least six people were killed in a strike on a house in the northeastern Hermel region, the agency reported, while an emergency response group affiliated with Hezbollah ally the Amal movement said five of its rescuers were killed in the south.
\nHezbollah said its fighters launched \u201ca volley of Fadi-1\u201d rockets at an Israeli base in the Golan Heights early Sunday. The Israeli military reported \u201capproximately eight\u201d launches from Lebanon that fell in unpopulated areas near the Israeli-annexed territory.
\nCult status
\nNasrallah was the face of Hezbollah, enjoying cult status among his supporters.
\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had \u201csettled the score\u201d with Nasrallah\u2019s killing, while Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the world was \u201ca safer place\u201d without him.
\nUS President Joe Biden \u2013 whose government is Israel\u2019s top arms supplier \u2013 said it was a \u201cmeasure of justice for his many victims\u201d.
\nAnalysts told AFP that Nasrallah\u2019s death leaves bruised Hezbollah under pressure to respond.
\n\u201cEither we see an unprecedented reaction by Hezbollah\u2026 or this is total defeat,\u201d said Heiko Wimmen of the International Crisis Group think tank.
\nhe assassination also showcased Israel\u2019s military and intelligence prowess.
\n\u201cIt demonstrates\u2026 just how deeply Israel has penetrated Hezbollah,\u201d said James Dorsey of Singapore\u2019s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
\nHezbollah has condemned Nasrallah\u2019s assassination, with First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref threatening it would bring about Israel\u2019s \u201cdestruction\u201d.
\nOn Sunday, Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also vowed that the killing of its Revolutionary Guards general Abbas Nilforoushan alongside Nasrallah would \u201cnot go unanswered\u201d.
\nHamas condemned Nasrallah\u2019s killing as a \u201ccowardly terrorist act\u201d, while Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Syria all declared public mourning.
\nAllied armed groups across the region like Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels, already drawn into the Gaza war, have vowed action against Israel.
\nAn \u201cunmanned aerial target\u201d approaching Israel over the Red Sea \u2013 where the Houthis have launched attacks before \u2013 was intercepted on Sunday, the Israeli military said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
\n\u2018Breaking point\u2019
\nMost of the deaths in Lebanon came on Monday, the deadliest day of violence since the country\u2019s 1975-1990 civil war.
\nUN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said \u201cwell over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon\u201d and more than 50,000 have fled to neighbouring Syria.
\nLebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati however warned the figure could be much higher, saying up to one million people may have been forced from their homes.
\nIt was potentially the \u201clargest displacement movement\u201d in the country\u2019s history, he said.
\nThe World Food Programme said it had launched an emergency operation to provide meals and support for \u201cup to one million people\u201d affected by the escalation.
\n\u201cLebanon is at a breaking point and cannot endure another war,\u201d said WFP regional director Corinne Fleischer.
\nDiplomats have said efforts to end the war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink.
\nIn Gaza, AFP correspondents reported several air strikes during the night and shelling from a navy boat.
\nCivil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said an Israeli strike killed at least three Palestinians in a house in Gaza City, with three more killed in two separate strikes in the territory\u2019s north and centre.
\nHamas\u2019s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
\nOf the 251 hostages seized by the Palestinian group, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
\nIsrael\u2019s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,595 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory\u2019s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israeli military announces killing of Nabil Qaouq, member of Hezbollah\u2019s central council in a strike on Saturday Tel Aviv Israel said on Sunday that it killed another senior Hezbollah official in an air strike on the Lebanese capital after assassinating its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Israel announced the killing of Nabil Qaouq, a member of Hezbollah\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434322,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-434297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n