Israel says targeted strikes on Syria killed leader of Hezbollah's financial arm
In short:
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says strikes on Syria have killed the person responsible for transactions funding Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah says it has launched rockets at two key bases near Tel Aviv and a naval base west of Haifa in Israel.
What's next?
Israel says it will continue to strike targets in the Middle East to prevent Hezbollah from regrouping and rearming.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says targeted strikes on locations in Syria have killed the person responsible for the financial operations of the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
Avichay Adraee, the Arabic language spokesman for the IDF, said warplanes targeted several locations "used to store money for the military arm of Hezbollah", including Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which he said financed arms purchases and was used to pay fighters.
The Israel Defense Forces launched targeted strikes on Lebanon and Syria, which it says killed the financial leader of the terror group Hezbollah.
In an address posted online, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israel believed Iran funded Hezbollah by sending cash and gold to the Iranian embassy in Beirut, and that the bombings had killed the people responsible for the operation.
"Hezbollah Unit 4400 manages this financial network. It was run by Ja'far Qassir until he was eliminated in a precise strike in Beirut at the beginning of October," he said.
"Today in another precise strike in Syria, we have eliminated his successor.
"The IDF will not allow Hezbollah to regroup and rearm."
The IDF has released intelligence suggesting Hezbollah stashed millions of dollars in cash and gold in an underground bunker in Beirut.
The strikes came as Israel confirmed it planned to carry out more strikes in Lebanon against Al-Qard al-Hassan.
Evacuation sirens rang out over Beirut on Monday, local time, as more strikes hit the city, including near its main government hospital, Rafik Hariri University Hospital.
The Lebanese health ministry initially reported that a child and three adults were killed in 13 strikes across southern Beirut.
On Tuesday, the health ministry raised the toll for the strike near the hospital to at least 18 people killed, including four children, and 60 others injured.
The Israeli military said its jets hit a Hezbollah target close to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital but did not target the hospital, which it says was not affected by the strike.
Hezbollah fires rockets into Israel
People take cover as a siren warns of incoming rockets in the outskirts of Haifa, northern Israel.
Hezbollah said it launched rockets at two key bases near Tel Aviv and a naval base west of Haifa early on Tuesday morning (local time), but causing no apparent damage or injuries.
The group said it had fired rockets at the Glilot base used by Unit 8200 of Israel's military intelligence, and the Nirit area in Tel Aviv's suburbs.
The Israeli military said most of the projectiles were intercepted by the country's missile defence system, with one landing in an open area and air raid sirens being activated.
It comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken lands in Israel, where he is expected to revive negotiations around a ceasefire in Gaza and defuse the conflict in Lebanon.
The State Department said Mr Blinken would spend a week in Israel and other Arab countries such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
He is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog according to Israeli officials.
"Secretary Blinken will discuss the importance of bringing the war in Gaza to an end, securing the release of all hostages, and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people," US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Israel says Hezbollah stashed bunker with gold
Rear-Admiral Hagari also said Hezbollah had stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker belonging to former Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and built under a hospital in Beirut, which the IDF decided not to bomb on Monday.
"I'm calling on the Lebanese government, Lebanese authorities, and the international organisations: don't allow Hezbollah to use the money for terror and to attack Israel," he said in the televised statement.
"The Israeli Air Force is monitoring the compound, as you can see. However, we will not strike the hospital itself."
The Australian government considers Hezbollah to be a terrorist organisation.
Israel says it will not stop striking targeted locations across the Middle East in a bid to stop Hezbollah rearming.
IDF posts drone vision from Gaza
While the IDF continued bombing Beirut, Colonel Adraee posted vision online showing displaced men, women and children in northern Gaza.
Israeli forces surrounded hospitals and shelters for displaced people in the area of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday as they stepped up operations against Palestinian militants, according to residents and medics.
The drone vision shows hundreds of Gazan residents in single file ahead of a group passing by destroyed buildings and a stationary tank with an Israeli flag.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA says Israeli authorities are preventing humanitarian missions from reaching areas in the north of the Palestinian enclave with critical supplies like medicine and food.
Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, said in a statement that Israeli forces have been blocking rescue missions aimed at pulling people from the rubble of bombing locations.
"Hospitals have been hit and are left without power while injured people are left without care. UNRWA remaining shelters are so overcrowded, some displaced people are now forced to live in the toilets," he said.
"According to reports, people attempting to flee are getting killed, their bodies left on the street."
Israel's military has presented an alternate view, saying its troops had helped thousands of civilians to evacuate safely through organised routes.
The IDF says it has dismantled infrastructure and tunnel shafts and killed alleged fighters in the Jabalia area, and remains in contact with the international community and Gaza's healthcare system to ensure hospital emergency services were operating.
Biden 'deeply concerned' about secret Israel documents
In the aftermath of the strikes on Beirut, US President Joe Biden said he was "deeply concerned" about the unauthorised release of classified documents on Israel's preparation for a potential retaliatory attack on Iran, according to a White House spokesman.
The Biden administration was still not certain if the classified information was leaked or hacked, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
The documents were attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency and detailed Israeli movements of military assets to conduct a military strike in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack on October 1.
Marked top secret, the documents first appeared online on Friday on the Telegram messaging app and quickly spread among Telegram channels popular with Iranians.
The release comes at a pivotal time in the Middle East, as Israel considers its response to Iran's attack.
The US has urged Israel to take advantage of its elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and press for a ceasefire in Gaza, while also cautioning Israel not to further expand military operations in the north in Lebanon and risk a wider regional war.
ABC/wires
By：https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-22/israel-strikes-on-syria-kill-hezbollah-financial-arm-leader/104500398(责任编辑：admin)
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