War between Lebanon, Israel Takes New Turn: Assassinations, Deeper Attacks

Mourners attend the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Silem, Lebanon, January 9, 2024. (Reuters)
Mourners attend the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Silem, Lebanon, January 9, 2024. (Reuters)
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War between Lebanon, Israel Takes New Turn: Assassinations, Deeper Attacks

Mourners attend the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Silem, Lebanon, January 9, 2024. (Reuters)
Mourners attend the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Silem, Lebanon, January 9, 2024. (Reuters)

The latest Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Hezbollah’s retaliation to them have revealed a new shift in the war.

Israel is now focusing on assassinations through precise strikes, while Hezbollah has limited its response by attacking military targets that would not lead to a full-scale war, said Lebanese parliamentary sources.

Israel has expanded its strikes to reach 12 kilometers into Lebanese territory and has kept up its assassinations.

The latest target was the southern Lebanon commander of Hezbollah's aerial unit, Ali Hussein Barji.

Hezbollah denied those claims, saying in a statement on Tuesday "the commander was never subjected to any assassination attempt as the enemy claimed."

Israeli military chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Barji had led dozens of drone attacks on Israel, as Israel and Hezbollah have been waging their deadliest hostilities in 17 years.

Israel has carried out two assassinations in Lebanon in a week. Last week it killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in a strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold.

On Monday, it killed Hezbollah commander Wissam Tawil, the most senior party officer to die in the fighting. It targeted his vehicle in the town of Khirbet Silem.

An officer in the group's elite Radwan force, Tawil had played a leading role in directing Hezbollah operations in south Lebanon and had been previously deployed to Syria, where the group has supported Damascus in the war.

Tawil’s funeral was held on Tuesday shortly ahead of which Israel launched a strike against a vehicle in Khirbet Silem, wounding four people and allegedly killing Barji.

Hezbollah struck Israeli military targets in retaliation to Arouri and Tawil’s assassinations. On Saturday, it said it had hit a key Israeli observation post in Mount Meron with 62 rockets as a "preliminary response" to Arouri's killing.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah attacked the Israeli army headquarters in Safed, northern Israel, with explosive drones deployed from Lebanon, hitting the position for the first time.

The latest developments indicate that the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is taking a new turn after it was initially limited to cross-border fire, said military experts.

The Lebanese people fear the Israeli assassinations may be aimed at luring Hezbollah to make a response that could lead to the widening of the conflict, going against American demands that the war remain contained to Gaza.

A parliamentary source, who has been following international contacts related to Lebanon, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hezbollah has, so far, limited its responses to Israel to military targets, noting its attacks on Mount Meron and Safed.

Such attacks are unlikely to lead to the widening of the conflict, it added.

This has not prevented Israel from carrying out attacks deeper into Lebanese territory.

Since the beginning of the week, it struck the region of al-Ghandourieh, 12 kms deep into Lebanon, killing three Hezbollah members. On Tuesday, it hit Khirbet Silem, 10 kms deep.



Israeli Army Orders Gaza City Suburb Evacuated, Spurring New Displacement Wave

A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Israeli Army Orders Gaza City Suburb Evacuated, Spurring New Displacement Wave

A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to residents in areas of an eastern Gaza City suburb, setting off a new wave of displacement on Sunday, and a Gaza hospital director was injured in an Israeli drone attack, Palestinian medics said.
The new orders for the Shejaia suburb posted by the Israeli army spokesperson on X on Saturday night were blamed on Palestinian militants firing rockets from that heavily built-up district in the north of the Gaza Strip.
"For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south," the military's post said. The rocket volley on Saturday was claimed by Hamas' armed wing, which said it had targeted an Israeli army base over the border.
Footage circulated on social and Palestinian media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed residents leaving Shejaia on donkey carts and rickshaws, with others, including children carrying backpacks, walking.
Families living in the targeted areas began fleeing their homes after nightfall on Saturday and into Sunday's early hours, residents and Palestinian media said - the latest in multiple waves of displacement since the war began 13 months ago.
In central Gaza, health officials said at least 10 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the urban camps of Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij since Saturday night.
HOSPITAL DIRECTOR WOUNDED BY GUNFIRE
In north Gaza, where Israeli forces have been operating against regrouping Hamas militants since early last month, health officials said an Israeli drone dropped bombs on Kamal Adwan Hospital, injuring its director Hussam Abu Safiya.
"This will not stop us from completing our humanitarian mission and we will continue to do this job at any cost," Abu Safiya said in a video statement circulated by the health ministry on Sunday.
"We are being targeted daily. They targeted me a while ago but this will not deter us...," he said from his hospital bed.
Israeli forces say armed militants use civilian buildings including housing blocks, hospitals and schools for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminately targeting populated areas.
Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in north Gaza that are barely operational as the health ministry said the Israeli forces have detained and expelled medical staff and prevented emergency medical, food and fuel supplies from reaching them.
In the past few weeks, Israel said it had facilitated the delivery of medical and fuel supplies and the transfer of patients from north Gaza hospitals in collaboration with international agencies such as the World Health Organization.
Residents in three embattled north Gaza towns - Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun - said Israeli forces had blown up hundreds of houses since renewing operations in an area that Israel said months ago had been cleared of militants.
Palestinians say Israel appears determined to depopulate the area permanently to create a buffer zone along the northern edge of Gaza, an accusation Israel denies.
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 people, uprooted nearly all the enclave's 2.3 million population at least once, according to Gaza officials, while reducing wide swathes of the narrow coastal territory to rubble.
The war erupted in response to a cross-border attack by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023 in which gunmen killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.