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Israel Kills Hezbollah Official in Beirut Airstrike
View of a damaged building at the site of an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, April 1, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
An Israeli airstrike killed four people including a Hezbollah official in Beirut‘s southern suburbs on Tuesday, a Lebanese security source said, further testing a shaky ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said the official – Hassan Bdeir – was a member of a Hezbollah unit and Iran’s Quds Force, and he had assisted the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in planning a “significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians.”
Hezbollah confirmed that Bdeir had been killed along with his son, who was also a member of the group. The Lebanese security source said Bdeir was a mid-ranking commander whose responsibilities included the Palestinian file.
The Lebanese health ministry said the strike killed four people – including a woman – and wounded seven others.
It marked Israel‘s second airstrike in the Hezbollah-controlled suburb of Beirut in five days, adding to strains on the US-brokered ceasefire that ended last year’s devastating conflict.
The attacks on Beirut‘s southern suburbs have resumed at a time of broader escalation in the region, with Israel having restarted Gaza strikes after a two-month truce and the United States hitting the Iran-aligned Houthis of Yemen in a bid to get them to stop attacking Red Sea shipping.
Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim Moussawi said the Israeli attack amounted to “a major and severe aggression that has escalated the situation to an entirely different level.”
Speaking in a televised statement after visiting the building that was struck, he called on the Lebanese state to “activate the highest level of diplomacy to find solutions.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the eliminated Hezbollah operative posed “a real and immediate threat.” “We expect Lebanon to take action to uproot terrorist organizations acting within its borders against Israel,” he said.
Israel dealt severe blows to Hezbollah in the war, killing thousands of its fighters, destroying much of its arsenal and eliminating its top leadership, including Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah has denied any role in recent rocket attacks from Lebanon towards Israel, including one that prompted Israel to carry out an airstrike on the southern suburbs last Friday.
Tuesday’s strike in the early hours appeared to have damaged the upper three floors of a building, a Reuters reporter at the scene said, with the balconies of those floors blown out.
The glass on the floors below was intact, indicating a targeted strike. Ambulances were at the scene as families fled to other parts of Beirut.
There was no advance warning, in contrast to the attack on Friday when the Israeli military announced which building it intended to hit and ordered residents to leave the area.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the latest airstrike, calling it a “dangerous warning” that signals premeditated intentions against Lebanon, which would intensify diplomatic outreach and mobilize international allies.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the strike was a flagrant breach of a UN Security Council Resolution upon which the ceasefire was based, and the ceasefire arrangement.
US BACKS ISRAEL
The ceasefire agreement demanded that southern Lebanon be free of Hezbollah fighters and weapons, that Lebanese troops deploy into the area, and that Israeli troops withdraw.
But each side accuses the other of failing to implement the terms fully. Israel says Hezbollah still has infrastructure in the south, while Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel is occupying Lebanese soil by not withdrawing from five hilltop positions.
The US State Department said that Israel was defending itself from rocket attacks that came from Lebanon and that Washington blamed “terrorists” for the resumption of hostilities.
“Hostilities have resumed because terrorists launched rockets into Israel from Lebanon,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email, responding to a question from Reuters seeking reaction to Tuesday’s airstrike. Washington supported Israel‘s response, the spokesperson said.
The Israel–Hezbollah conflict was ignited when Hezbollah opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war. It escalated in September when Israel went on the offensive, declaring the aim of securing the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from homes in the north.
The war uprooted more than a million people and killed at least 3,768 people in Lebanon, according to a Lebanese health ministry toll from November. Dozens more have been reported killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire.
Lebanon’s figures do not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
During the war, Hezbollah strikes killed 45 civilians in northern Israel and the Golan Heights. At least 73 Israeli soldiers were killed in northern Israel, the Golan Heights, and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli authorities.
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Terrorist Murderer of Pregnant Woman Believed to Have Been Eliminated
Nael Sami Samara, a 36-year-old from Bruqin, the West Bank, who is believed to be connected to the murder of Tze’ela Gez while she was on her way to hospital to give birth. Photo: 27A according to Israeli copyright law
i24 News – The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency believe that the murderer of Tze’ela Gez last week, who was slaughtered in cold blood while on her way to give birth in the hospital, was killed on Saturday by security forces in the West Bank.
Nael Sami Samara, a 36-year-old Palestinian, is suspected of being connected with the terror attack, although it is unclear if he was the shooter.
Samara was killed in Bruqin, near the Jewish community of Bruchin in the northern West Bank and close to where the attack occurred.
Samara’s brother was also captured by the forces for interrogation, as well as several members of his extended family. The Shin Bet detained several more suspects for investigation. In parallel, the siege on the two villages, Bruqin and a-Dik, continues as the terrorist has not been definitively identified.
“As part of the manhunt for the terrorist who carried out the shooting attack in which Tze’ela Gez was killed, targeted sweeps were performed by IDF soldiers directed by the Shin Bet in the village of Bruqin, close to the scene of the attack,” the IDF and Shin Bet spokespersons said in a joint statement. “This morning, several suspects were arrested for involvement in the attack. During the arrest of one of the suspects, a terrorist was identified running towards the forces while holding a bag carrying suspected explosives and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar.’ In face of the immediate threat, the soldiers engaged and neutralized the terrorist. None of our forces were injured.”
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Report: Mohammed Sinwar’s Body Found In Tunnel Near Rafah Crossing
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that, “according to all indications, Mohammed Sinwar was killed.” The Saudi channel Al-Hadath also reported that the body of the acting Hamas leader was found in a tunnel near the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, the southern Gaza Strip. Alongside Sinwar, the bodies of 10 of his aides and the commander of the Rafah Brigade in Hamas, Mohammed Shabana, were found. Later it was reported that his brother, Zakaria Sinwar, was killed in an Israeli attack, but doctors reported him alive but in critical condition.
Last Tuesday, the Israeli Air Force carried out a rare attack against tunnel infrastructure near the European Hospital. i24NEWS learned that there are a number of names being floated to replace him, among them the commander of the Gaza City Division, Ezzedine al-Haddad; a leading Hamas political bureau member, Nizar Awadallah; and Khalil al-Haya, a senior member of the political arm of the terrorist organization.
On Sunday morning, Israel’s security apparatus said there has been no change in the status of Sinwar, but as time goes by optimism is growing that he was successfully eliminated in the targeted killing.
The post Report: Mohammed Sinwar’s Body Found In Tunnel Near Rafah Crossing first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Mossad Retrieves Trove of Documents, Belongings of Executed Spy Eli Cohen
Venerated Israeli spy Eli Cohen. Photo: JNS.org.
i24 News – Some 2,500 documents, photos, and belongings of executed spy Eli Cohen were retrieved from Syria in a special Mossad operation, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Sunday.
The trove was recovered due to a secret, complex operation in cooperation with the official Syrian archive, which held thousands of classified items ever since his capture and subsequent execution in Damascus’s al-Marjeh Square in 1965.
The items included the keys to his Damascus apartment, forged passports, and photos he took during his espionage, particularly of senior Syrian officials. He also left behind notebooks and diaries that were seized by Syria’s intelligence service.
The announcement came 60 years to the day after his execution, with the items presented in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad Director David Barnea, and the widow of the late Eli Cohen, Mrs. Nadia Cohen. Included was Cohen’s will, which he wrote hours before his execution, and of which only a copy has been publicly revealed so far.
“Eli Cohen is a legend. In the test of time, he is revealed as the greatest intelligence agent in the history of the state, whose heroism and activity contributed to the historic victory in the Six-Day War,” Netanyahu said. “The Eli Cohen archive, which was brought with special effort, will educate generations, and expresses our tireless commitment to returning all of our missing persons, prisoners of war and abductees to our country.”
“Bringing the archive is a significant achievement of the highest ethical and moral value, and another step in advancing the investigation to locate the burial place of our man in Damascus,” said Barnea. “This important mission is before our eyes, and we are committed to continuing to do everything we can to realize it. “We will continue to work to locate and return all the missing, the fallen, and the kidnapped – the living for rehabilitation and the fallen for eternal rest in the tomb of Israel.”
This comes after Israel worked for decades to locate every piece of evidence relating to Cohen, aimed at discovering his fate after his execution and his grave. Included in the archive is the orginal sentencing for his execution, which stated that the court allowed the Damascus Jewish community religious leader, Rabbi Nissim Andabu, to accompany Cohen in accordance with Jewish tradition ahead of his execution.
Syrian intelligence also compiled a large file labeled “Nadia Cohen,” which collected his widow’s efforts to secure his release from prison, including letters to world leaders and the Syrian president.
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