Israel-Hezbollah latest: Netanyahu says would-be Hezbollah leader Safieddine killed in airstrike
Israel has pushed into south-west Lebanon after days of fighting on the south eastern side of the country
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Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli forces have killed the would-be successor of the late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
In a pre-recorded video message, the Israeli prime minister said: “We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement.”
Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to replace the Nasrallah, had probably been “eliminated”.
Safieddine, a top Hezbollah official, has not been heard from publicly since an Israeli airstrike late last week. He has been a prime target for Israel, nurtured as an influential leader and potential heir.
The Israeli military also said on Tuesday that it had killed Suhail Husseini – who was responsible for overseeing Hezbollah logistics, budget and management – the night before.
The claims come as the Israeli military expanded its ground invasion of southern Lebanon by deploying another division of thousands of troops and Hezbollah launched barrages of rockets towards the northern Israeli port city of Haifa on Tuesday for the third consecutive day, injuring 12 people.
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Pictured: Smoke billows above ancient city of Tyre, southern Lebanon
Pictured: Aftermath of Hezbollah rocket fire in Haifa
Pictured: Commercial plane takes off as smoke billows across the Beirut skyline
Health facilities in Lebanon ‘severely damaged’, WHO says
Health facilities have been severely damaged by Israel’s ongoing bombardment and invasion of Lebanon as it seeks to uproot Hezbollah, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned.
There have been 36 attacks on health facilities, killing 77 health workers and injuring 74 others over the past year, according to the WHO.
Watch: Starmer’s blunt response to suspended Labour MP’s question on Israel arms sales
Israeli air force strike school being used by Hezbollah, military claims
The Israeli Air Force destroyed a school in southern Lebanon being used by Hezbollah to launch rockets at northern Israel, the Israeli military claimed.
“Over the past few hours, Israeli Air Force fighter jets have continued to strike Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon, including launchers, terrorist infrastructure sites, and anti-tank missile launchers,” the military said.
“During Israeli military operational activity in the area, the Israeli air force struck Hezbollah observation posts, anti-tank missile launchers, and ambush posts.”
Keir Starmer takes aim at ‘malign’ Iran and vows never to ban all arms sales to Israel
Sir Keir Starmer used the first anniversary of Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack on Israel to urge the international community to turn its focus on the “malign” regime in Iran.
In a carefully crafted statement in the Commons to commemorate the 7 October atrocity, which sparked war in the Middle East, Sir Keir’s message to MPs was that the ayatollahs who rule Iran must be held to account and forced to take responsibility for the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the region.
He said his government “will never stop selling weapons to Israel”, despite calls from French president Emmanuel Macron for a full arms embargo.
Read the full article here:
Starmer takes aim at ‘malign’ Iran and vows never to ban all arms sales to Israel
Starmer tells MPs: ‘This was not a defensive action by Iran, it was an act of aggression’
Pictured: Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel
Pictured: Aftermath of Beirut strikes
MI5 has thwarted 20 Iran-backed plots since 2022, chief says
British intelligence has thwarted 20 Iran-backed plots that presented “potentially lethal threats” to British citizens since 2022, MI5’s chief said.
“Since 2022 we’ve seen plot after plot here in the UK, at an unprecedented pace and scale,” MI5 director general Ken McCallum said.
“As events unfold in the Middle East, we will give our fullest attention to the risk of an increase in – or broadening of – Iranian state aggression in the UK,” he added.
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