Smoke billows from an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, Nov. 13, 2024. (Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Wednesday for the third time in 24 hours, while a separate overnight strike on Aramoun in the Aley district killed at least six people, according to Lebanon's health ministry.
In Beirut’s southern suburbs, morning attacks on Ghobeiri, Haret Hreik and Chiyah occurred an hour after the Israeli army issued a call on X to evacuate six buildings in the neighborhoods of Ghobeiri and Haret Hreik, which had already been targeted overnight.
According to our correspondent, one of the overnight strikes targeted an area near the Dar al-Hawra Medical Center, in Bir Abed street in Haret Hreik.The medical center w is linked to the Hezbollah-affliated Islamic Health Committee. Early Wednesday evening, the Israeli army also called for the evacuation of two buildings in Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh, followed by strikes on the area.
An overnight Israeli strike from Tuesday to Wednesday targeted a four-story residential building in the densely populated area of Aramoun, south of Beirut in the Kesrouan district.. This was the first time this presumably ‘safe’ area was hit by Israeli fire. According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, at least six people were killed and 15 others injured, with "human remains" also found at the scene.
In southern Lebanon, an Israeli drone attack on a motorcycle in Yohmor al-Shkeif (Nabatieh district) killed one person, according to our correspondent. Israeli warplanes bombed Qana, Hanaway, Srifa, Kfar Roummane, Dhaira, Shamaa, Alma al-Shaab, Majdal Zoun, Qleileh, Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, Bint Jbeil, Baraasheet, Shakra, Majdal Selm, Jmaijmeh, Souaneh, Yater, Tibnin, Ain al-Mezreb, Tayr Harfa, Burj Qalaway, Sultaniyeh, Shebaa and Siddiqine. Drones also targeted Yohmor al-Shkeif and Shaaitieh, while artillery fire shelled Beit Yahoun, Kounin, Yater, Tayr Harfa, Kfar Shuba, while targeting areas along the Litani River near Blat
On Wednesday, the Lebanese Health Ministry announced that 78 people were killed and 122 others injured over the past 24 hours. These numbers bring the total toll of the Israeli assault on Lebanon since Oct. 8, 2023, to 3,365 killed and 14,344 injured.
Hezbollah offensives
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for over 20 attacks on Israel, including two strikes on the Israeli army headquarters in Tel Aviv, where the Defense Ministry is located. In a statement, the party reported launching "an aerial attack with exploding drones on the Hakirya base, the building housing the Defense Ministry and the Israeli General Staff, in Tel Aviv."
The second attack on the same location was carried out using Qader 2 ballistic missiles. For the first time since the beginning of the war, Hezbollah also targeted the Israeli weapons production plant, Israel Weapon Industries, located 110 km from the Lebanese-Israeli border in Ramat Hasharon, a suburb of Tel Aviv, with "high-precision missiles," claiming to have hit its targets.
Hezbollah also targeted Israeli soldiers east of Maroun al-Ras and in Wadi Yaroun, both in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil district.
The party also announced on Tuesday that, for the first time since the start of the war, it launched Fadi-6 rockets at Israel's Tel Nof air base, located southeast of Tel Aviv. This marked Hezbollah’s first use of the sixth generation of Fadi rockets. In a short video released on Wednesday, Hezbollah detailed that this major base, the oldest in the Israeli Air Force, is located "southeast of the occupied city of Jaffa" and 145 kilometers from the Lebanese border. The base hosts F-15 aircraft, drones and units specialized in electronic warfare. Additionally, Hezbollah released a detailed statement late Tuesday in which it announced it has killed over 100 Israeli soldiers and wounded more than 1,000 in the Israeli army since Oct. 1, 2024.
No agreement without ‘disarming’ Hezbollah
The Israeli army announced that it had "eliminated Hezbollah field commanders" in Khiam, Tibnit and Ghajar in southern Lebanon — Mohammed Moussa Salah, Ayman Mohammed Naboulsi and Hajj Ali Youssef Salah — in two separate strikes. The Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, stated on X that the first commander was killed in early October and the second on Sunday.
On Wednesday, the army also reported six Israeli soldiers killed in combat in southern Lebanon.
On the political front, Israel's new defense minister, Israel Katz, vowed to maintain pressure on Hezbollah. “There will be no cease-fire and there will be no respite. We will continue to hit Hezbollah with full force until the goals of the war are achieved. Israel will not agree to any arrangement that does not guarantee Israel's right to enforce and prevent terrorism on its own and meeting the goals of the war in Lebanon, disarming Hezbollah and withdrawing them beyond the Litani River and returning the residents of the north safely to their homes,” Katz stated during his first visit to the Israeli army's northern command base since assuming office last week.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah stated in a news conference that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "will not achieve politically what he could not gain through war.”
Finally, on the diplomatic front, during a visit to Beirut "aimed solely at stopping the shameful Israeli aggression in Lebanon as quickly as possible," Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aati rejected any external pressure that would tie Lebanon’s presidential election to a cease-fire.