Hezbollah Launches Dozens of Rockets Toward Northern Israel
The Iran-backed Lebanese militant group claimed the rockets were in response to an Israeli strike that killed a Hezbollah field commander (Times of Israel)
Senior U.S. and Israeli officials discussed efforts to contain escalation of the conflict with Hezbollah in Washington (Times of Israel)
U.S. Special Envoy Visits Lebanon in Bid to Prevent Further Escalation Between Israel and Hezbollah
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned in an X post that Israel is “very close” to a decision on an all-out war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, following hints from Hezbollah that they may attack Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city (Reuters)
IDF Spokesperson Warns of “Wider Escalation” of Conflict With Hezbollah
White House envoy Amos Hochstein is visiting Israel today in an effort to contain those tensions (Haaretz)
Hezbollah Fires New Barrage of Rockets Into Northern Israel
Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said the strikes were a tit-for-tat response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon (Haaretz)
After French President Emmanuel Macron proposed a trilateral group with France, Israel, and the United States to defuse tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said today that Israel would not join (Reuters,Times of Israel)
Lebanon’s Top General Visits Washington Amid Efforts to Prevent War Escalation
Lebanese General Joseph Aoun met with senior U.S. officials and lawmakers this week in his first visit to Washington since February 2023; the United States wants to prevent a war between Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel as hostile exchanges between the two are mounting, with one U.S. strategy looking into supporting Lebanon’s military to contain Hezbollah (Al-Monitor)
Hezbollah Retaliates Against Israel’s Killing of Top Commander With Barrage of Missiles
Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel today in response to the killing of one of the group’s top commanders (AP)
Israel Strikes Hezbollah Base Deep in Lebanon
Nine Israeli air strikes hit a Hezbollah compound in response to the group’s prior downing of an Israeli drone; the attack killed three Hezbollah members and marked one of the deepest Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon (Times of Israel)
Hezbollah Claims to Shoot Down Israeli Drone
Lebanon’s Hezbollah claims to have struck down an Israeli attack drone over Lebanese territory, marking a continued increase in conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border this week (Reuters)
Gunman Shot and Captured After Firing Shots Outside U.S. Embassy in Beirut
No motive was immediately clear, and Lebanese authorities said they were investigating the incident (AP)
Yesterday the Israeli military’s chief of staff said Israeli forces will soon determine their response to ongoing attacks in northern Israel by the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah (Times of Israel)
Hezbollah Claims to Fire More Than Sixty Rockets at Israeli Military Targets
It is the second day of retaliation after Israel killed a Hezbollah commander on Tuesday night; Israel’s military said it intercepted several missiles launched from Lebanon and reported no casualties (Bloomberg)
EU Pledges More Than $1 Billion for Lebanon as Part of Migration Management Deal
In Beirut today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the funding available through the year 2027 was part of European Union (EU) efforts to support Lebanon’s security and stability; she said that the EU is committed to keeping legal migration pathways open to Europe and counted on Lebanon to combat irregular migration and migrant smuggling (Politico)
Hezbollah Targets Site Ten Miles Inside Israel
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said that its drones had hit a barracks in northern Israel, while the Israeli military said three drones were intercepted and they had recorded no casualties or damage; the attack is Lebanon’s deepest inside Israel since last October (NYT)
Three Wounded From Hezbollah UAV Crashes in Northern Israel
Residents of northern Israel said that two explosive drones had crossed from Lebanese territory and fell in Beit Hillel in the Galilee on Tuesday, which lightly wounded three people, Israeli media reported (Jerusalem Post)
Four Israeli Soldiers Wounded by Border Blast in Lebanon, IDF Says
Several Israeli soldiers have been wounded in a blast in the Tel Ismail area in southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli military and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which claimed responsibility for the attack (Times of Israel)
It said its fighters detonated the devices when a patrol of Israeli soldiers crossed into Lebanon and arrived at the area where the devices were planted; this was the first time Hezbollah claimed such an attack in more than six months of near-daily cross-border fire with Israel (Al Jazeera).
Lebanese Man Sanctioned by the U.S. Over Hamas Links Found Dead
A Lebanese man sanctioned by the United States for his alleged links with the Palestinian group Hamas was found dead Wednesday after he went missing for a week (Reuters)
The body of Mohammad Surur was found on Tuesday in a villa in the mountain town of Beit Mery, with several gunshot wounds to his legs; the injuries, along with a large sum of money found on the body, led Lebanon’s security forces to conclude that Surur had been subject to a violent interrogation (The Guardian). Surur was sanctioned in 2019 by the U.S. Treasury, which said he had transferred “tens of millions of dollars a year” between the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ al-Quds Force and Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades (ABC).
Israel Kills Hezbollah Field Commander in Lebanon
Early on Monday, Israeli fighter jets hit the village of al-Sultaniyah and killed a field commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit and two other people, the Israeli military and two Lebanese security sources said; the Israeli military identified the commander as Ali Ahmed Hassin, and said he was responsible for planning and executing attacks against Israelis (Reuters)
Meanwhile, Pascal Sleiman, the leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) party in north Lebanon’s Jbeil district, was kidnapped and killed on Sunday, with officials expressing concerns the incident could exacerbate already heavy tensions between various religious factions in Lebanon (Al-Monitor)
After announcing the arrest of several Syrians involved in the kidnapping on Monday, the Lebanese army said that Sleiman was killed by his kidnappers while they were trying to steal his car, and his body was taken to Syria. (Jerusalem Post).
Hezbollah Downs Israeli Hermes 900 Drone in Lebanese Airspace
Hezbollah announced that it downed an Israeli Hermes 900 drone on Saturday, making it the second interception of an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Lebanese skies since the outbreak of the Gaza War, after a Hermes 450 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile in February (Haaretz).
Lebanese PM Declares Agricultural Disaster in South Lebanon Due to Israeli Attacks
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said Israeli air strikes have turned southern Lebanon into a “devastated agricultural area,” burning tens of thousands of olive trees and torching farmland across southern Lebanon (Reuters)
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Mikati said 800 hectares of farmland had been severely damaged, 340,000 livestock had died, and about 75 percent of farmers in the south had lost their source of income (The National)
Anti-Corruption Groups File Complaint Against Lebanon’s PM in France
Two anti-corruption groups have filed a complaint in France against Lebanon’s billionaire caretaker premier Najib Mikati and his relatives, seeking an investigation into alleged financial crimes, including money laundering (Jerusalem Post). In a statement issued by his office, Mikati said he had not been formally notified of the complaint and that his family’s wealth was acquired transparently and legally; it said the accusations were part of a “media campaign” aimed at “insulting him and his family members” (AP).
Israeli Defense Minister Taking Steps to Prepare Public For War in Lebanon
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant directed his officials to explore how to prepare the public for a full-scale war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to Israeli media on Tuesday (Middle East Monitor)
On Wednesday, Gallant stated that a war with Hezbollah would prove “difficult” for Israel, but “it would be a catastrophe for Hezbollah and Lebanon” (Jerusalem Post).
Israel Strikes Several Hezbollah Targets in Lebanon
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched simultaneous attacks on ten Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including a weapons storage facility and several launch posts (Jerusalem Post).
IDF Kills High-Ranking Hezbollah Commander in Lebanon
The Israeli military announced the death of Ismail al-Zin, a senior commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces, after an Israeli warplane carried out a targeted strike on his vehicle in southern Lebanon (Al Jazeera)
Explosion in South Lebanon Injures Four UN Workers
The UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL said it is investigating the origins of a blast that injured three observers and one translator as they were carrying out a foot patrol in south Lebanon (Reuters)
Lebanon’s state news agency reported that the explosion was caused by an Israeli drone strike; the Israeli military denied responsibility (BBC)
Dozens Reported Killed in Israeli Air Strikes in Syria
Israeli air strikes in northern Syria today killed at least thirty-eight people, including five fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, three unnamed security sources told Reuters; Israel did not immediately comment on the strikes, which appeared to be its most deadly in Syria in months (Reuters)
Israel has recently targeted sites linked to Iran’s allies in Syria (BBC)
Cross-Border Strikes Kill Seven in Lebanon, One in Israel
The deadly strikes overnight followed a day of attacks between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah across the Israel-Lebanon border; the clash was one of the deadliest along the border since the start of the Israel-Hamas war (Al Jazeera)
A Lebanese paramedics association reported the deaths in Lebanon, while Israeli rescue services reported the death in Israel; in both cases, the attacking force said it was targeting a military facility (AP)