‘Al-Izz Islamic Brigades’: New Group Targeting Israel from Lebanese Border

Smoke billows over the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam near the border with Israel on January 11, 2024, amid increasing cross-border tensions with Lebanon, as fighting continues between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (AFP)
Smoke billows over the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam near the border with Israel on January 11, 2024, amid increasing cross-border tensions with Lebanon, as fighting continues between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (AFP)
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‘Al-Izz Islamic Brigades’: New Group Targeting Israel from Lebanese Border

Smoke billows over the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam near the border with Israel on January 11, 2024, amid increasing cross-border tensions with Lebanon, as fighting continues between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (AFP)
Smoke billows over the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam near the border with Israel on January 11, 2024, amid increasing cross-border tensions with Lebanon, as fighting continues between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (AFP)

A new group, the “Al-Izz Islamic Brigades”, claimed on Sunday responsibility for an operation along the Lebanese-Israeli border that left five Israeli soldiers wounded. Three members of the group were also killed.

In a statement, it said its “fighters breached the border fence in the occupied Shebaa Farms” and engaged an Israeli patrol near the Rweisat al-Alam area, “making direct hits.”

It announced that three of its members were killed in the fighting, while the remaining two were unhurt.

The group said an Israeli drone attack in the same area left three of its members dead on Friday.

It explained the fighters had been on a surveillance mission in the area.

Moreover, Al-Izz Islamic Brigades revealed that Sunday’s attack was in retaliation to the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, Samir Fandy and others in an Israeli attack in Beirut earlier this month.

Arouri was the deputy political leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement.

The group added that Sunday’s attack was a “message to the Zionist enemy to cease its criminal war against Palestine and Lebanon before it engulfs the region and entire world.”

No one has heard of the Al-Izz Islamic Brigades in Lebanon. It is unknown if it is a Lebanese or Palestinian group.

Lebanese security sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that nothing is known about the group.

The three fighters that were allegedly killed were never transferred to any hospital in Lebanon. It isn’t even known if they were retrieved from where they were killed, they added.

Sources close to Hamas denied any affiliated to the Brigades, telling Asharq Al-Awsat “it is proud of its martyrs and doesn’t conceal them.”

Local sources in Shebaa told Asharq Al-Awsat that they had never head of the Brigades before and “nothing is known about its activities.”

Speculation rose that the group may be affiliated to the “Islamic Jihad”, but its sourced denied the claims.



Hezbollah Fires about 250 Rockets, Other Projectiles into Israel in Heaviest Barrage in Weeks

Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
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Hezbollah Fires about 250 Rockets, Other Projectiles into Israel in Heaviest Barrage in Weeks

Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)

Hezbollah fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, wounding seven people in one of the group's heaviest barrages in months, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with ceasefire efforts to halt the all-out war.

Some of the rockets reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel.

Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on an army center killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others in the southwest between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon's military said.  

The Israeli military expressed regret, saying that the strike occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah and that the military's operations are directed solely against the fighters.

Israeli strikes have killed over 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon's military has largely kept to the sidelines.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the latest strike as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

Hezbollah fires rockets after strikes on Beirut  

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes at Hezbollah, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several top commanders.

The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired Sunday, with some intercepted.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including a 60-year old man in severe condition from rocket fire on northern Israel, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast in the central city of Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, and a 70-year-old woman who suffered smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire there.  

In Haifa, a rocket hit a residential building that police said was in danger of collapsing.

The Palestine Red Crescent reported 13 injuries it said were caused by an interceptor missile that struck several homes in Tulkarem in the West Bank. It was unclear whether the injuries and damage elsewhere were caused by rockets or interceptors.

Sirens wailed again in central and northern Israel hours later.

Israeli airstrikes without warning on Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 29 people and wounding 67, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Smoke billowed above Beirut again Sunday with new strikes. Israel's military said it targeted Hezbollah command centers in the southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, where the group has a strong presence.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardment in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north.

EU envoy calls for pressure to reach a truce  

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region last week.

The European Union’s top diplomat called Sunday for more pressure on Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was "pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government.”

Josep Borrell spoke after meeting with Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group.

Borrell said the EU is ready to allocate 200 million euros ($208 million) to assist the Lebanese military, which would deploy additional forces to the south.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the monthlong 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol with the presence of UN peacekeepers.