Tensions were running high after the Israeli strike in Lebanon
Israeli operations against Iran in the wide-scale military offensive in the Negev desert and the killing of a top nuclear scientist based on a remote-controlled robot
The bombing of an apartment building in Lebanon that killed a top Hezbollah commander, followed by large-scale attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah, came weeks after Israel attacked the militia for the first time.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel last Oct. 7, Israel has conducted a series of assassinations of commanders of Iran’s regional proxy forces, including Hamas and Hezbollah.
These attacks have come at the same time as Israel’s wide-scale military offensive in Gaza, which health officials there say have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians. The United Nations, rights groups and some governments have accused Israel of using disproportionate force in its war in Gaza against Hamas. Israel says its use of force is justified and legal.
A series of operations, including assassinations and sabotage, over the years have targeted senior leaders involved with Iran’s nuclear program. These included the poisoning of a nuclear scientist in 2007 and the killing of another in 2010 by a remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle.
Israel’s Dimona complex, the heart of its never-acknowledged nuclear arms program in the Negev desert, was used as a testing ground for the Stuxnet computer worm. The destructive program was credited with wiping out roughly afifth of Iran’s nuclear equipment, which Tehran needs to make a nuclear weapon.
They are the latest attacks by Israel, including a series against Iran’s nuclear program, that have embarrassed enemies, and shown Israel’s prowess at using military technology and intelligence to strike anywhere and at any time.
Four people linked to Iran’s nuclear program were killed by hit men on motorcycles. An assassin in 2010 put a bomb in a car door. In others, gunmen approached vehicles in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and fired through the window before speeding off.
In November 2020, Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed by gunshots fired from a truck-mounted machine gun that had been attached to a remote-controlled robotic apparatus. Experts said the operation had taken months, and likely years, of planning.
Israel and Hezbollah retaliated against Israel in the aftermath of the Ramat David air base attack on Tuesday and Wednesday
The Israeli media reported that the rockets were fired from Lebanon, but they were not successful in hitting Haifa or other cities further south. The sense of crisis was deepened by the cancellation of school across the north.
The air raid sirens went off across the region as the rockets streaked over a wider area of northern Israel. The Israeli military stated that rockets had been fired at civilian areas, pointing to a possible increase after previous attacks were mostly aimed at military targets.
Four people were taken to the Magen David Adom rescue service, three of them with wounds from bombs, and one of them was a 75-year-old man wounded near Haifa. It was not immediately clear if the damage was caused by a rocket or an Israeli interceptor.
Hezbollah began firing rockets in support of the Palestinians and Hamas in Gaza a year ago, prompting Israel and Hezbollah to start exchanging fire. Over half a million people were displaced by the low-level fighting on the frontier.
Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles — a new type of weapon the group had not used before — at the Ramat David airbase, southeast of Haifa, “in response to the repeated Israeli attacks that targeted various Lebanese regions and led to the fall of many civilian martyrs.”
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel for the wave of explosions that killed at least 37 people, including two children, and injured over 3000 on Tuesday and Wednesday. The attacks were widely blamed on Israel, which has not confirmed or denied responsibility.
Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, told reporters Saturday that at least seven women and three children were killed in Friday’s airstrike on the building. He said another 68 people were injured, including 15 who were hospitalized.
It was the bloodiest attack on Lebanon since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and there are 23 people still missing.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the attack broke up the group’s chain of command while taking out Akil, who he said was responsible for Israeli deaths. He had been on the U.S. most wanted list for years, with a $7 million reward, over his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon during the civil war in the 1980s.
Israel has carried out a series of assassinations of senior leaders of Iranian proxy forces including Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran-backed forces in the past year. The assassinations have come at the same time as Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. Four people linked to Iran’s nuclear program were killed by hit men on motorcycles.