Hezbollah Pledges Strong Response to Israel over Killing of Military Chief, Alone or with Allies

29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)
29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)
TT

Hezbollah Pledges Strong Response to Israel over Killing of Military Chief, Alone or with Allies

29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)
29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)

The leader of Hezbollah on Tuesday pledged a "strong and effective" response to the killing of its military commander by Israel last week and said it would act either alone or with its regional allies.

Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah would wait for the right moment to respond but did not hint on its form or timing. All international attempts at persuading Hezbollah not to retaliate were futile, he said.

"Whatever the consequences, the resistance will not let these Israeli attacks pass by," he said in a televised address to mark one week since the assassination of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

"Our response, God willing, will be strong, effective and impactful."

Members and supporters of Hezbollah gathered to watch the speech in a southern suburb of Beirut. Just before his speech began, Israeli warplanes swooped low over the Lebanese capital, setting off a series of sonic booms that rattled windows across the city and sent people ducking for cover.

There was no comment from the Israeli military.

Concern is rising that the Middle East could tip into full-blown war following Hezbollah's vows to avenge Shukr's killing, and Iran's anger over the assassination in Tehran last week of the head of Palestinian group Hamas.

The strike that killed Shukr on July 30 was the second time Israel had struck the southern suburbs in 10 months of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli that are taking place in parallel with the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

Hezbollah earlier on Tuesday said it launched a swarm of attack drones at two military sites near Acre in northern Israel and attacked an Israeli military vehicle in another location.

The Israeli military said a number of hostile drones were identified crossing from Lebanon and one was intercepted.

Israeli medical officials said seven people were evacuated to hospital, to the south of the coastal city of Nahariya, one in critical condition.

The Israeli military said an initial investigation indicated the injuries were caused by an interceptor that "missed the target and hit the ground, injuring several civilians".

Reuters journalists saw one impact site near a bus stop on a main road outside Nahariya.

The Israeli military said in a statement sirens sounded around Acre, but that turned out to be a false alarm. It said its air force struck two Hezbollah facilities in south Lebanon.

Earlier on Tuesday, four Hezbollah fighters were killed in a strike on a home in the Lebanese town of Mayfadoun, nearly 30 km (19 miles) north of the border, medics and a security source said.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese caretaker government is trying to prevent a Hezbollah response against Israel that could start a wider war, Lebanon's foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Tuesday during a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart.



Israel Says Dozens of Palestinian Fighters Killed in Gaza over Past 24 Hours

 Smoke from Israeli bombardment billows in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 5, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (AFP)
Smoke from Israeli bombardment billows in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 5, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (AFP)
TT

Israel Says Dozens of Palestinian Fighters Killed in Gaza over Past 24 Hours

 Smoke from Israeli bombardment billows in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 5, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (AFP)
Smoke from Israeli bombardment billows in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 5, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (AFP)

Israeli forces killed 45 Palestinian fighters in Gaza over the past day, the military said on Tuesday, after heavy fighting in which militant group Hamas said it destroyed two armored personnel carriers during an ambush near the city of Rafah.

The Israeli military said the Hamas official in charge of smuggling operations was among those killed and that his death significantly hit their ability to bring weapons and military equipment into the besieged enclave.

On Tuesday, air strikes killed five Palestinians in the Al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, medics said, while two others were killed in a separate air strike in Rafah, near the southern Gaza border with Egypt.

Later on Tuesday, an Israeli strike killed two Palestinians in Rafah, medics said, and another killed five other people in Khan Younis, including local journalist Mohammad Abu Saada.

Abu Saada's death brought to 166 the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli fire since Oct 7, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said in a statement.

In Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, three Israeli missiles hit near a mosque wounding dozens of people, health officials said,

Hamas-led fighters set off the Gaza war last October when they rampaged through Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip, in a surprise attack, killing 1,200 Israelis and foreigners and seizing some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

In response, Israel has conducted a relentless assault on Gaza that has reduced much of the heavily populated coastal strip to ruins, killed 39,653 Palestinians and wounded 91,535 others, according to Gaza health ministry figures.

The figure does not distinguish between fighters and civilians but Israeli authorities estimate their forces have killed or incapacitated some 14,000 fighters, around half the total Hamas force estimated at the start of the war. Hamas does not provide casualty numbers for its fighters.

MULTI-FRONT THREAT

In other action, Hamas' armed wing said its fighters destroyed the two Israeli troop carriers in an ambush east of Rafah, where heavy fighting has been reported for weeks. There was no confirmation from the Israeli military.

The territory's health ministry said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 30 Palestinians and wounded 66 others in the past 24 hours.

"Many victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, where the teams of the ambulance and civil emergency service can't reach," the ministry said in a statement.

With Israel braced for a possible attack in the north by Iran and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, it faces a multi-front threat, 10 months after the start of the war in Gaza.

In the larger Palestinian territory, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli forces also killed at least eight people on Tuesday and overnight.

Most of Gaza's population has been displaced multiple times since the start of the war and the fighting has brought misery to thousands trapped in overcrowded tent shelters.

Residents said Israeli tank shelling continued overnight in Bureij, Al-Maghazi, Nuseirat, and Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands of displaced families from all over the enclave have sought temporary refuge.

Residents and Hamas media said tanks made a brief advance earlier on Tuesday in Al-Zahra City northwest of Nuseirat.