The conflict between Israel and Iran's allies is in full swing. Rocket explosions were reported in the capital of Lebanon on Thursday. Columns of smoke rise from downtown Beirut. The Israeli attack targeted at least one high-ranking official of the terrorist group Hezbollah.
According to TheGuardian, which cites Israeli media, the target of the attack was Wafiq Safa, one of Hezbollah's top political officials. He is the brother-in-law of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and served as his negotiator.
Safa was in charge of the group's external relations. He made a working visit to the United Arab Emirates in March, in what was seen at the time as a potential thaw in relations between the Hezbollah group and the Gulf states. He was also involved in maintaining the group's security and is known to have threatened the judge investigating the Beirut port explosion case after the magistrate demanded the questioning of Hezbollah-affiliated officials.
At least 11 people were killed and 48 others were wounded in two Israeli strikes in central Beirut on Thursday evening, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported.
About an hour after the airstrikes, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for residents of Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, warning they would carry out airstrikes on pre-specified buildings they said were Hezbollah weapons facilities.
The IDF is clearing southern Lebanon and it could all be over in a matter of weeks
JPost notes that until the IDF stepped up its escalation against Hezbollah a few months ago to try to force it into a cease-fire agreement, the group was "only" firing rockets into the nearest town border.
As Israel increased the pressure, Hezbollah began firing into larger cities farther away, cities such as Nahariya, Acre, and Safed, and eventually expanded into the Haifa area, Israel's third-largest population center.
The assessment of the cited publication's analysis is that the IDF will finish all or most of its invasion of southern Lebanon within weeks, an estimate that is more optimistic than anticipated at the start of the invasion.
We recall that the Israeli army has deployed its fourth division to its northern border, to reinforce the ground offensive in southern Lebanon. The latter, the 146th Reserve Division, began operations on Monday evening, just hours after the entry of the third division was announced. Given these recent mobilizations, there may now be over 15,000 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon.
