Colombian Authorities Deport Two Hezbollah Operatives

Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano (Reuters)
Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano (Reuters)
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Colombian Authorities Deport Two Hezbollah Operatives

Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano (Reuters)
Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano (Reuters)

The Colombian authorities arrested and deported two members of the Lebanese Hezbollah who were spying on US and Israeli diplomats.

The Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano said that the Hezbollah operatives attempted to carry out attacks against Israeli and US targets in Colombia.

Israeli intelligence (Mossad) confirmed that Hezbollah sent its agents to Bogota to carry out operations in retaliation for the assassination of Qasim Soleimani, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force commander.

Soleimani was killed in an airstrike in early 2020 carried out by a US drone near Baghdad International Airport.

In the wake of the assassination, Iran warned that US bases, ships, and forces would be potential targets for a response.

In turn, Hezbollah threatened, in the wake of Soleimani's assassination, to expel all US from the Middle East.

Earlier this year, Hezbollah Sec-Gen Hassan Nasrallah said Iran "does not need help" from its allies and would retaliate "when it decides so."

Nasrallah added that Tehran would not ask any other country or body to conduct a retaliatory strike on its behalf, stressing that Iran is a "strong country and will decide when and how to react.

"It does not need to rely on others."

Iran also threatened to attack Israel in retaliation for killing a prominent nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.



Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
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Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP

Israel on Sunday said it had launched a new national communications satellite on board a SpaceX rocket from the United States.

The Dror 1 satellite was blasted into orbit on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the foreign ministry said.

"This $200 million 'smartphone in space' will power Israel's strategic and civilian communications for 15 years," the ministry wrote on X.

Accompanying video footage showed the reusable, two-stage rocket lift off into the night sky. SpaceX said the launch happened at 1:04 am in Florida (0504 GMT Sunday).

IAI, which called the launch "a historic leap for Israeli space technology", said when it announced the project to develop and build Dror 1 that it was "the most advanced communication satellite ever built in Israel".

In September 2016, an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying Israel's Amos-6 communications satellite, which was estimated to have cost between $200 and 300 million.