LAST UPDATE | 23 Oct
ISRAEL AND HEZBOLLAH have continued to exchange rocket and air strikes today as civilians in the south of Lebanon’s capital Beirut were ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate.
Deadly clashes along the southern border of Lebanon escalated in recent weeks as Israel sought to invade parts of the country it deemed were home to Hezbollah strongholds.
Today, however, the militant group claimed that the Israeli military have not been able to secure or hold onto any town in the south, while rocket strikes on Hezbollah positions in Beirut have intensified.
This evening, four Israeli strikes destroyed a residential complex in Beirut’s Laylaki suburb as residents in parts of a neighbouring suburb, Burj al-Barajneh, were ordered to evacuate by Israel as its military prepares to target Hezbollah positions there.
Hezbollah meanwhile has said it struck a military manufacturing firm in Tel Aviv with rockets. It claimed it has hit the target “accurately”.
Fighting continued today as the Israeli military announced it had killed the cleric tipped to succeed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike on Beirut three weeks ago.
Hezbollah has not issued a statement about the Israeli claims to have killed Hashem Safieddine.
“It can now be confirmed that in an attack approximately three weeks ago, Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, and Ali Hussein Hazima, the head of Hezbollah’s Intelligence Directorate, were killed along with other Hezbollah commanders,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
The army said the air force had hit Hezbollah’s main intelligence headquarters in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in the Lebanese capital, and that more than 25 Hezbollah militants were present at the time.
Longtime Hezbollah leader Nasrallah was killed on 27 September in an Israeli air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. His death was seen as the first escalation in the intensified fighting between Israel and the militant group.
Safieddine, tipped to succeed his distant cousin as leader, had been out of contact since Israeli strikes on Beirut weeks ago, a high-level Hezbollah source said at the time.
“We have reached Nasrallah, his replacement and most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership”, Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said in a statement after the confirmation of Safieddine’s death.
Amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon in late September, vowing to secure its northern border threatened by cross-border fire from Hezbollah.
Israel ramped up its air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around the country and sent in ground troops late last month, in a war that has killed at least 1,552 people since 23 September, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
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