Nasrallah’s killing and the past week’s waves of strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon have plunged the tiny Mediterranean country and the wider region into fear of even more violence to come.
Hezbollah launched low-intensity cross-border strikes on Israeli troops after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged an incursion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, sparking the war in the Gaza Strip.
Nearly a year later, Israel announced a shift in its focus to battling Hezbollah on its northern front with Lebanon.
Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s killing Friday in a massive strike on the group’s main bastion in the south Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said the strikes in the densely populated area also left 55 people dead, while thousands of others have fled their homes in the neighbourhood.
“I can’t describe my shock at this announcement … we all started crying,” Maha Karit told AFP in Beirut after Nasrallah’s death.
With Lebanon already deep in a political and economic crisis, the escalation has pushed it to the brink, with the Israeli bombardment killing more than 700 people in a week, according to Health Ministry figures.
The Israeli military said Sunday its air force had struck dozens of Hezbollah targets after carrying out “hundreds” of strikes on Friday and Saturday.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported a string of raids in and around the city of Baalbek in the east, with “factories, warehouses” and residential areas among the targets.
At least six people were killed in a strike on a house in the northeastern Hermel region, the agency reported, while an emergency response group affiliated with Hezbollah ally Amal movement said five of its rescuers were killed in the south.
Hezbollah said its fighters launched “a volley of Fadi-1” rockets at an Israeli base in the Golan Heights early Sunday.
The Israeli military reported “approximately eight” launches from Lebanon that fell in unpopulated areas near the Israeli-annexed territory.
ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/LEBANON-BIDEN FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah carry his pictures as they gather in Sidon, following his killing in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday, Lebanon September 28, 2024. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo
Major following
Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah, enjoying strong support and reverence among his supporters.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had “settled the score” with Nasrallah’s killing, while Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the world was “a safer place” without him.
U.S. President Joe Biden – whose government is Israel’s top arms supplier – said it was a “measure of justice for his many victims.”
Analysts told AFP that Nasrallah’s death leaves bruised Hezbollah under pressure to respond.
“Either we see an unprecedented reaction by Hezbollah … or this is total defeat,” said Heiko Wimmen of the International Crisis Group think tank.
Hezbollah backer Iran has condemned Nasrallah’s assassination, with First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref threatening it would bring about Israel’s “destruction.”
Iran’s U.N. envoy Amir Saeid Iravani urged diplomacy to prevent Israel “from dragging the region into full-scale war.”
Hamas, another Hezbollah ally, condemned Nasrallah’s killing as a “cowardly terrorist act.”
Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Syria all declared public mourning.
Allied groups across the region like Yemen’s Houthi rebels, already drawn into the Gaza war, have vowed action against Israel.
An “unmanned aerial target” approaching Israel over the Red Sea – where the Iran-backed Houthis have launched attacks before – was intercepted Sunday, the Israeli military said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
‘Breaking point’
Most of the deaths in Lebanon came Monday, the deadliest day of violence since the country’s 1975-1990 civil war.
ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/LEBANON A view shows the damage at the site of the Israeli air strike that killed Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, September 29, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmad Al-Kerdi
U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi said “well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon” and more than 50,000 have fled to neighbouring Syria.
The World Food Programme said it had launched an emergency operation to provide meals and support for “up to 1 million people” affected by the escalation.
“Lebanon is at a breaking point and cannot endure another war,” said WFP regional director, Corinne Fleischer.
Diplomats have said efforts to end Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink.
Source:dailysabah.com