Lebanon Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. BEIRUT—Israel launched devastating attacks on Hezbollah in recent days with airstrikes and remote-control explosions that put the Lebanese militant group on the defensive and demonstrated Israel’s vast superiority in intelligence gathering and technology. A ground war between the two, if it occurs, would likely be a different story.

Hezbollah — deadly attacks pinned on Israel that also maimed civilians across Lebanon. Hezbollah's leader vowed to retaliate, and on Friday the militant group launched a wave of rockets into northern Israel. Later in the day, the commander of Hezbollah's most elite unit was killed in a strike in Beirut that killed dozens more people. The cross-border attacks ramped up early Sunday, with Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite group that is Lebanon's most powerful armed force, launching more than 100 rockets deeper into northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa. Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon.

Israel as Hezbollah launched multiple projectiles into Israeli airspace. This followed the Israeli Defense Forces' (IDF) bombing of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. The bombing marked one of Hezbollah’s deadliest days in decades. Israel's Iron Dome defense system successfully intercepted most of the projectiles, according to an Israeli army statement. Approximately 180 projectiles and one unmanned aerial vehicle entered Israeli airspace over the course of the day.

the Middle East in response to a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon said Monday. Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder would provide no details on how many additional forces or what they would be tasked to do. The U.S. currently has about 40,000 troops in the region. “In light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional U.S. military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region. But for operational security reasons, I'm not going to comment on or provide specifics.”

air strikes targeting eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and warned residents to move away from Hezbollah sites in the area. «We are preparing for a large-scale and targeted strike in Bekaa Valley,» military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a media briefing, adding that residents should «distance themselves» from Hezbollah sites «for your safety and protection». «Hezbollah stores its strategic weaponry in civilian buildings and uses the population as human shields,» Hagari said.

Indian soldiers who laid down their lives during World War I to liberate the northern Israeli coastal city of Haifa from Ottoman rule has been cancelled due to escalating tensions in West Asia. Israel and Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah have carried out widespread strikes on each other, raising tensions, and prompting Israel Home Front command to issue precautionary advisory to citizens. Outdoor gatherings of up to ten and indoor gatherings of up to a hundred people, close to protected shelters, are currently allowed. «Due to the current situation, the Haifa Day commemoration, planned for September 23, 2024 in Haifa, by the Embassy of India, is being cancelled,» an official communication said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Let’s call it Operation Chutzpah. If, as is widely believed, the Mossad detonated pagers and walkie-talkies used by Lebanese Hezbollah terrorists, killing dozens and wounding thousands, it will go down as an intelligence operation for the history books.

Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets early Sunday across northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon. A Hezbollah leader declared an «open-ended battle of reckoning» was underway as both sides appeared to be spiraling closer toward all-out war. The overnight rocket barrage was in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon that have killed dozens, including a veteran Hezbollah commander, and an unprecedented attack targeting the group's communications devices. Air raid sirens across northern Israel sent hundreds of thousands of people scrambling into shelters. One rocket struck near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, a city near Haifa, wounding at least three people and setting buildings and cars on fire. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said four people were wounded by shrapnel in the barrage.

Hezbollah in Lebanon were certainly an espionage and technological coup. Few people on the spot or reading about them from far away could fail to be amazed. But the explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday were also very likely war crimes — terrorist attacks by a state that has consistently condemned terrorist attacks on its own citizens. Yes, the devices most probably were being used by Hezbollah operatives for military purposes. This might make them a legitimate target in the continuous cross-border battles between Israel and Hezbollah. But the attacks, which killed at least 37 people and wounded thousands of others, came when the operatives were not operating; they had not been mobilized and they were not militarily engaged. Rather, they were at home with their families, sitting in cafes, shopping in food markets — among civilians who were randomly killed and injured. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the attacks but is widely believed to be behind them. If those allegations are true, it is important for friends of Israel to say: This was not right.

The rocket barrage overnight sent thousands of people scrambling into shelters. The Israeli military said rockets had been fired «toward civilian areas,» pointing to a possible escalation after previous barrages had mainly been aimed at military targets. The barrage came after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday killed at least 37 people, including one of Hezbollah's top leaders as well as women and children. The militant group was already reeling from a sophisticated attack that caused thousands of personal devices to explode just days earlier.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. TEL AVIV : With escalating attacks on Hezbollah’s rank and file, commanders and infrastructure, Israel is pressing its military and intelligence advantage to give the Lebanese group an implied ultimatum: make a deal to pull back from Israel’s northern border, or go to war. Israel is rotating its attention to its border with Lebanon as the Gaza Strip battlefield becomes static, launching an aggressive series of attacks that have devastated Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

Lebanon this week showed that the Israeli government planned to spread the war to the region, Turkey's President Recip Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday, calling on Western countries to take "deterrent steps" against Tel Aviv's actions. Erdogan told a press conference that Israel's war in Gaza will top the agenda of his speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. «In order for our region not to be dragged into a great disaster, the pressure on Israel must be increased even more,» Erdogan told a press conference in Istanbul.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. BEIRUT—Israel’s airstrike on a building in southern Beirut didn’t just kill a top Hezbollah commander—it took out an entire class of senior leaders of the militant group’s most elite fighting force, as the two foes lurch closer to all-out war. Hezbollah on Saturday raised the death toll among its fighters from Friday’s airstrike to 16, including top military commander Ibrahim Aqil and many of the senior commanders of the elite Radwan force.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The puzzle of how thousands of pagers were sabotaged in an Israeli attack on Hezbollah this past week has sparked investigations into the supply chain behind them, leading investigators to a labyrinth of shadowy companies and individuals spanning Asia and Eastern Europe. The search for who was behind the manufacturing, sale and distribution of the pagers has pointed to some companies that were created in recent years, with little to no paper trail of their activities and run by mysterious business people with a vague online footprint and little experience in the telecommunications industry.

IDF) announced the death of Ibrahim Aqil, the alleged head of Hezbollah's Operations Unit, in a targeted strike in Beirut. The operation also killed members of Hezbollah's Operations Staff and commanders from the Radwan Unit. The IDF reported that Aqil and the other commanders were planning a major attack called the "Conquer the Galilee" plan, aiming to infiltrate Israeli communities and target civilians. «I can now confirm that Ibrahim Aqil was eliminated together with other senior terrorists in Hezbollah's Radwan forces. Ibrahim Aqil had the blood of many innocent people on his hands. Israelis, Americans, French, Lebanese and more,» stated IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

Hezbollah official Ibrahim Aqil was killed in a targeted strike in the Jamous area south of Beirut on Friday, as confirmed by both Hezbollah and the Israeli military. Aqil was a member of the group’s military council and led Hezbollah’s Operations Unit for two decades. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, stated, “Ibrahim Aqil had the blood of many innocent people on his hands — Israelis, Americans, French, Lebanese and more.” He added that Aqil and other members killed in the strike were in the process of planning additional attacks on Israel.

Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in an airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday, the Israeli military and two security sources in Lebanon said, sharply escalating the year-long conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah operations commander killed in an Israeli strike on Friday, had a $7 million bounty on his head for two 1983 Beirut truck bombings that killed more than 300 people at the American embassy and a U.S. Marines barracks. Two security sources in Lebanon confirmed the veteran fighter was killed in an airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs during a meeting of the elite Radwan unit of the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group. Aqil, who has also used the aliases Tahsin and Abdelqader, was the second member of Hezbollah's top military body, the Jihad Council, to be killed in two months after an Israeli strike in the same area targeted Fuad Shukr in July.

Israel hit a Beirut suburb with an airstrike Friday, not long after Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets following a vow by the militant group's leader Hassan Nasrallah to retaliate against Israel for a mass bombing attack, the Israeli military and the militant group said. The Israeli military said it had carried out a «targeted strike» in Beirut. It offered no further immediate details, but explosions could be heard coming from the city's southern suburbs. Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV reported that a drone fired several missiles on the heavily-populated area known as Dahiyeh. A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media, confirmed to The Associated Press that an airstrike struck the area, without giving further details.

Hezbollah launched a significant barrage of 140 rockets into northern Israel on Friday, following a declaration from the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who vowed to retaliate for recent Israeli bombing attacks. The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed that the rockets were fired in three waves during the afternoon, targeting various locations along the conflict-ridden border with Lebanon.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Hezbollah was scrambling Friday to recover from a week of blows delivered by Israel, including an unusually heavy series of airstrikes across southern Lebanon and attacks that caused electronic devices carried by thousands of the militant group’s members to explode virtually simultaneously across the country. The group is trying to determine whether any of its communications networks are safe as it searches for security gaps and hunts down the possibility of moles in the organization, people familiar with the matter said.