Israel increases pressure

Massive attacks in Lebanon and the West Bank

Israel flew massive air strikes on Beirut.(Bild: AP/Hassan Ammar)

The Israeli army has once again targeted Hezbollah and Islamist Palestinian organizations in attacks in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. In the West Bank, a commander of the Islamic Jihad militant group was apparently killed in one of its strongholds.

In Lebanon, Israel once again shelled the center of Beirut as well as strongholds of the militants in the south and east of the country. The Israeli army declared that it had killed the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group for the refugee settlement of Nur Shams in the West Bank.

Muhammad Abdullah was "eliminated" on Thursday during an attack on the camp in Tulkarem. The Islamic Jihad did not initially confirm Abdullah's death.

Islamic Jihad involved in October massacre
According to the Israeli army, Abdullah was involved in "numerous attacks in the region". During the military operation, another "terrorist" was killed and M-16 rifles, among other things, were seized. Islamic Jihad is allied with the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas, which triggered the Gaza War with its major attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, 22 people were killed and 117 others injured in two airstrikes on the center of the capital Beirut on Thursday evening, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. According to the Lebanese state news agency Ani, the Israeli attack on Beirut hit the densely populated residential district of Ras al-Nabeh and the adjacent Nueiri neighborhood.

Lebanese security sources told AFP that one of the two attacks was directed against a Hezbollah representative. It was the third attack on the center of Beirut since the beginning of the expansion of Israeli attacks against Hezbollah.

USA strives for de-escalation
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken once again expressed the hope that the Lebanese state would push Hezbollah out of public life. "It is clear that the people of Lebanon have a strong interest in the state asserting itself and taking responsibility for the country and its future," Blinken told journalists after the summit of the Southeast Asian Association of Nations (ASEAN).

Blinken also reaffirmed Israel's right to defend itself against Hezbollah - but at the same time emphasized that the USA was making "intensive efforts" to avoid an expansion of the fighting in the Middle East.

Hezbollah: The fight has just begun
According to its own statements, the radical Islamic Hezbollah militia is open to any attempt to stop "the aggression". The head of the Islamists' media office in Lebanon, Mohammed Afif, also said in a televised speech that his group's current priority is a military victory over Israel. The battle has only just begun.