JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army mentioned Sunday that it killed one other high-ranking Hezbollah official in an airstrike because the Lebanese militant group was reeling from a string of devastating blows and the killing of its general chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
The army mentioned Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council, was killed on Saturday. There was no instant remark from Hezbollah, and it was not recognized the place the strike happened.
If confirmed, he can be the seventh senior Hezbollah chief slain in Israeli strikes in a bit of over every week, together with founding members who had evaded loss of life or detention for many years. The Israeli army mentioned it carried out one other focused strike on Beirut afterward Sunday, with particulars to observe.
Hezbollah in the meantime confirmed that one of many seven, Ali Karaki, died in Friday’s strike that killed Nasrallah. The Israeli army had earlier mentioned that Karaki was killed within the airstrike, which focused an underground compound in Beirut the place Nasrallah and different senior Hezbollah figures had been assembly.
Hezbollah has additionally been focused by a complicated assault on its pagers and walkie-talkies that was broadly blamed on Israel. A wave of Israeli airstrikes throughout giant components of Lebanon has killed at the least 1,030 individuals — together with 156 girls and 87 kids — in lower than two weeks, in keeping with Lebanon’s Well being Ministry.
Lots of of 1000’s of individuals have been pushed from their houses in Lebanon by the lastest strikes. The federal government estimates that round 250,000 are in shelters, with three to 4 instances as many staying with mates or kin, or tenting out on the streets, Atmosphere Minister Nasser Yassin informed The Related Press.
Hezbollah has continued to fireplace rockets and missiles into northern Israel, however most have been intercepted or fallen in open areas. No Israelis have been killed for the reason that newest wave of strikes on prime Hezbollah leaders started on Sept. 20.
Kaouk was a veteran member of Hezbollah going again to the Eighties and served as Hezbollah’s army commander in southern Lebanon through the 2006 warfare with Israel. He usually appeared in native media, the place he would touch upon politics and safety developments, and he gave eulogies on the funerals of senior militants. The USA had introduced sanctions in opposition to him in 2020.
Hezbollah started firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault out of Gaza triggered the warfare there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies that take into account themselves a part of an Iran-backed “Axis of Resistance” in opposition to Israel.
Israel has responded with waves of airstrikes, and the battle has steadily ratcheted as much as the brink of all-out warfare, elevating fears of a region-wide conflagration.
Israel says it’s decided to return some 60,000 of its residents to communities within the north that had been evacuated practically a 12 months in the past. Hezbollah has mentioned it’ll solely halt its rocket fireplace if there’s a cease-fire in Gaza, which has confirmed elusive regardless of months of oblique negotiations between Israel and Hamas led by the US, Qatar and Egypt.
___
Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
___
Comply with AP’s warfare protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Melanie Lidman And Kareem Chehayeb, The Related Press
