The single biggest, and most historic development out of Lebanon in recent years was the Israeli assassination of longtime Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah on September 27, 2024, via massive bunker-busting airstrikes on his underground location in south Beirut.
Since then, Hezbollah's leadership has been greatly degraded, also given the widescale pager explosion attacks. To fill the leadership vacuum, a co-founder of Hezbollah, and its first deputy secretary-general who had long assisted Nasrallah, Naim Qassem, stepped in as new Secretary-General.
But now, Israel is once again trying to accomplish a 'decapitation strike' - reportedly having targeted Qassem in at least two recent operations thus far.
Jerusalem Post writes Tuesday that "Israel has attempted to target Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem at least twice in recent weeks, Saudi outlet Al Hadath reported on Monday, citing an anonymous Israeli source."
"The report came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that he had instructed the IDF to intensify attacks against the terrorist organization," JPost continues.
Crowds have especially fleeing Beirut's Dahiya district following the announcement of the escalation. Since Gaza war began, this district has been hit many times. It seems that Israel suspects he's in this area, and historic Hezbollah stronghold.
Monday saw expanded attacks across Lebanon, including Tyre, and Bekaa Valley, and the pace of airstrikes is expected to ramp up.
Al Jazeera earlier cited the Israeli army, which indicated that: More than 70 Hezbollah infrastructure sites across the country were hit Monday, some 10 headquarters and weapons depots in the Tyre area were struck, and an unspecified number of Hezbollah fighters on motorcycles were killed or wounded in the south. And now...
NETANYAHU SAYS ISRAELI MILITARY OPERATING WITH 'LARGE FORCES ON GROUND' IN SOUTHERN LEBANON AND TAKING CONTROL OF 'STRATEGIC AREAS'
While no new Beirut strikes were immediately forthcoming Monday into much of Tuesday, the IDF has issued evacuation orders for some southern suburbs, and people are fleeing, given past experiences of massive bombing raids:
Gong back to early March, over 3,180 Lebanese have been killed, with more than 9,000 wounded - according to Lebanese health officials. The figures do not distinguish between armed combatants or civilians.
Critics of Israel have warned that Netanyahu is trying to sabotage Trump's efforts to find a final peace deal with Iran. The Israelis have long worried that Washington could in the end settle for a 'bad deal' - or one that doesn't ensure the complete destruction of Iran's nuclear program and highly enriched uranium.
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Much further south, in Gaza, the IDF has reportedly taken out the leader of Hamas' Qassam Brigades...
