Israel killed a senior Hezbollah commander on Tuesday as part of a two-day bombardment that has left more than 560 dead and sent thousands of people in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the conflict.
With both sides on the brink of full-scale war, Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets into Israel on Tuesday, hitting an explosives factory and sending entire families into bomb shelters.
Israel said an attack in Beirut on Tuesday had killed Ibrahim Kobeisi, whom it named as a senior commander of the group’s rocket and missile unit. Military officials said Kobeisi was responsible for the launches against Israel and planned an attack in 2000 in which three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and killed. Hezbollah later confirmed his death.
It was the latest in a series of assassinations and missteps for Hezbollah, Lebanon’s main Arnadi group and considered the main paramilitary force in the Arab world.
“CIVILIAN TARGETS ATTACKED”: FAMILIES FLEEING TOWARDS BEIRUT
Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that six people were killed and 15 wounded in the attack on a southern suburb of Beirut, an area where Hezbollah has a strong presence. The National News Agency said the attack destroyed three floors of a six-story apartment building.
Families fleeing southern Lebanon arrived in Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon, where they slept in schools converted into shelters, as well as in cars, parks and on the beach. Some tried to leave the country, causing a traffic jam on the border with Syria.
Issa Baydoun fled the town of Shihine, in southern Lebanon, when it was bombed and arrived in the capital in a caravan with his entire family. After discovering that the shelters were full, they spent the night in their own cars on the side of the road.
“We had a lot of problems on the way to get here,” said Baydoun, who rejected Israel’s claim that it only attacks military targets. “We evacuated our homes because Israel is attacking civilians.”
Volunteers prepared food for displaced families at an empty Beirut gas station that became a relief center after the devastating explosion at a port in the Lebanese capital in 2020.
This was the sound the beeps made before they exploded, killing more than 30 people and injuring another 3,000. To see more from Telemundo, visit
AS ISRAEL’S OFFENSE BEGINS
Israel said late Tuesday that warplanes carried out extensive bombing raids against Hezbollah arsenals and rocket launch platforms in southern Lebanon and the Bek Valley.
When asked about the duration of the Israeli operations in Lebanon, military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari responded during a press conference that the intention is to keep them as short as possible, and that is why we are attacking with great power. At the same time, we must be prepared for the possibility that they will last longer.
Tensions between Israel and the political-paramilitary group Hezbollah have steadily escalated over the past 11 months. Hezbollah has been launching rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and their ally Hamas, a militant group backed by Iran.
Israel has responded with increasingly intense airstrikes and the assassination of Hezbollah commanders while threatening a broader operation.
The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on the situation in Lebanon on Wednesday at the request of France.
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Melzer contributes from Tel Aviv, Israel. Journalists from The Associated Press Jon Gambrell in Dubi, United Arab Emirates; Bassem Mroue and Fadi Tawil in Beirut; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, and Emad Haddad in Saksakieh, Lebanon, contributed to this dispatch.
The two series of beeper explosions left 32 dead and 3,200 injured.
