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Hezbollah Official Says Response to Top Commander’s Killing was 'Delayed by Political Considerations'

Tyre, Lebanon August 25, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher Purchase Licensing Rights
Tyre, Lebanon August 25, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher Purchase Licensing Rights
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Hezbollah Official Says Response to Top Commander’s Killing was 'Delayed by Political Considerations'

Tyre, Lebanon August 25, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher Purchase Licensing Rights
Tyre, Lebanon August 25, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher Purchase Licensing Rights

A Hezbollah official said on Sunday that the group's rocket and drone attack against Israel on Sunday in retaliation for a top commander's killing last month had been delayed by "political considerations," chiefly among them the ongoing talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal for the Gaza Strip, Reuters reported.

The official, in written comments shared with media outlets, said the group had "worked" to make sure its response to the killing of Fuad Shukr on July 30 would not trigger a full-scale war.

Also on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel took pre-emptive action against Hezbollah in Lebanon and that all drones launched against a strategic target in central Israel were intercepted.
He said that the leaders of Hezbollah and Iran should know that the response was "another step towards changing the situation in the north and returning our residents safely to their homes" and that "this is not the end of the story".

 

 

 

 

 

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Hezbollah Chief Says Attack Targeted Israeli Base Near Tel Aviv

People listen to a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a coffee shop in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People listen to a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a coffee shop in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
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Hezbollah Chief Says Attack Targeted Israeli Base Near Tel Aviv

People listen to a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a coffee shop in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People listen to a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a coffee shop in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his group's attack on Israel on Sunday targeted a military intelligence base near Tel Aviv around 100 kilometers from the Israeli-Lebanese border.

The "main target for the operation" inside Israel was "the Glilot base -- the main Israeli military intelligence base,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon early Sunday in what it called a preemptive strike to avert a large Hezbollah rocket and missile attack. The group said it fired hundreds of rockets and drones to avenge the killing of a top commander last month.

Nasrallah denied statements by the Israeli military that its pre-emptive strikes had stopped a wider attack by the group.

Israel's military said one soldier with the navy was killed and two others were wounded either by an interceptor for incoming fire, or by shrapnel from one. Two Hezbollah fighters and a militant from Amal movement were killed, the groups said.

Hezbollah called its attack on Israeli military positions an initial response to the killing of Fouad Shukur in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month. Nasrallah said assaults on Israel will continue “because there is still the response of (allies) Iran and Yemen.”

Nasrallah said Hezbollah had not planned a larger attack, specifically denying Israeli military statements that the group had intended to fire thousands of projectiles.
But he acknowledged that the operation had been delayed for several reasons, including what he called a "mobilization" of Israeli and American military assets in the region.