By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – An Israeli strike on a vehicle has killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border, several sources say.
It comes as Israel steps up deadly strikes against those it says are involved in attacks against the Jewish nation, with Israeli air raids reported on Lebanon and Syria.
Hezbollah named the killed fighter as Wissam al-Tawil without providing details.
He is the most senior militant in the armed group known to have been killed since Hamas’ October 7 attack into southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people, triggering an all-out war in Gaza.
The strike came after Israel’s military said Sunday that the Iran-backed Hezbollah force struck an air traffic control base in northern Israel and warned of “another war” with the Iran-backed militant group.
Days earlier, Israel was believed to have killed a top commander of Hezbollah ally Hamas in Beirut. Israel said the attack in the Lebanese capital was not a strike against Lebanon.
Although Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it assassinated Saleh al-Arouri, a spokesman called last week’s attack a “surgical strike against the Hamas leadership.” Hamas, which Israel has vowed to destroy, denounced it as a “terrorist act,” while its ally Hezbollah called it “an assault on Lebanese sovereignty.”
SYRIA STRIKES
Well-informed sources said Monday that Israel also carries out an “unprecedented wave” of deadly strikes in Syria targeting cargo trucks, infrastructure, and people involved in Iran’s weapons supplies to militia Tehran supports.
The intensified air campaign reportedly killed 19 Hezbollah members in Syria in three months – more than twice the rest of 2023 combined. More than 130 Hezbollah fighters have also been killed by Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon in the same period, sources said.
U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has rushed to the region in an attempt to prevent a broader armed conflict, but the ongoing cross-border attacks seemed to make his job more difficult with each passing hour.
“This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering,” Blinken acknowledged to reporters after talks in Qatar, a key mediator.
Blinken said earlier that Turkey is also committed to playing “a positive, productive” role for postwar Gaza and prepared to use its influence in the region to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from broadening even more.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Israel shared that assessment after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler while discussing Israel’s war in Gaza.
Blinken’s fourth visit to the Middle East came after he visited Turkey and Greece, followed by stops in Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia on Sunday and Monday.
VISITING ISRAEL
He was to visit Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday and Wednesday before wrapping up the trip in Egypt, though it wasn’t clear whether plans would change amid rapidly escalating tensions.
Israel says it has largely wrapped up major operations against Hamas in northern Gaza and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel warned the fighting would continue for many months as its army seeks to dismantle Hamas, which it regards as a terrorist organization.
They also want the return of scores of hostages taken during the Hamas attacks on October 7.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says nearly 23,000 people have been killed in Israel’s war on Hamas, although those figures have been difficult to verify.
Nearly 2 million people have been displaced amid the war, several sources say.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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