Tonight, Israeli warplanes conducted strikes on an underground bunker, where key Hezbollah leaders are believed to have gathered, including the supposed figure set to succeed the group’s recently assassinated leader. A series of powerful explosions shook densely populated neighborhoods south of Beirut, with shock waves shaking buildings across the Lebanese capital. Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the New York Times, said the army had gathered intelligence indicating a meeting of senior Hezbollah figures in a bunker in Dahiya, Beirut’s southern suburbs. According to information, among the participants in the meeting in the bunker hit by the Israeli raids was Hashem Safieddine, cousin and potential successor of Hassan Nasrallah, historic Hezbollah leader, assassinated last week in a similar attack. At the moment there is no official confirmation on Safieddine’s death. However, as with Nasrallah, given the large number of bombs that fell on the bunker, it is considered unlikely that he survived, if indeed he was there. Hezbollah told the newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour “that it still has no information” regarding the fate of Hachem Safieddine, head of the party’s executive council and Hassan Nasrallah’s designated successor, after the intense Israeli airstrike.
The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Avihai Adrei, issued a warning “to residents close to Hezbollah’s infrastructure and interests,” inviting them to evacuate nearby buildings for their safety and that of their families, hinting at further operations. Last week, several sources in the Arab world noted that Safieddine was not present at the top meeting where Nasrallah was killed, along with numerous other senior members of the organization, including Ali Karchi, commander of Hezbollah’s southern front. Safieddine, who closely resembles Nasrallah in both appearance and role, is known for his close ties to the Iranian regime, and is also the son-in-law of Iran’s former Quds Force commander, Qassem Soleimani.
There are signs that Israel may be preparing to step up its ground invasion into Lebanon, which began this week as it battles Hezbollah. On Thursday, the Israeli army warned residents of more than 20 cities and towns in southern Lebanon to immediately leave their homes and not move south towards the Israeli border. And this week, the army said it would send a fifth division of soldiers to the border area with Lebanon. At the time of writing, the Israel Defense Forces report that, in the last hour, around 20 rockets have been fired from Lebanon in the direction of the Haifa area. Most of the missiles were neutralized by air defense systems, while others landed in uninhabited areas. A few minutes later, further rockets were fired towards the Galilee region, but these too were intercepted or fell in unpopulated areas. Israel is now carrying out major operations on multiple fronts. The explosions in Dahiya, a stronghold of the militant group, came shortly after an Israeli warplane carried out an airstrike in Tulkarem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinian health officials said at least 18 people were killed.
Among them is Abd al-Razeq Oufi, the head of the local Hamas network. According to reports from the IDF and Shin Bet, Oufi, the senior Hamas commander, was planning an imminent terrorist attack and had already orchestrated an attempted car bomb attack near the Ateret settlement last month. Finally, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran, according to Times of Israel “is ready to lead Friday prayers and hold a public sermon that could reveal the Islamic Republic’s plans after the massive missile attack on Israel.” This rare Friday sermon, the first in nearly five years, comes three days before the first anniversary of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which erupted after the Oct. 7 attack by the Iranian-backed Palestinian group. According to his official website, Ali Khamenei, who wields maximum power in Iran, will lead prayers at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran amid tight security measures. The prayer will be preceded “by a commemoration ceremony” at 10:30 local time in honor of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, killed in an attack. Khamenei’s last Friday sermon was in January 2020, after Iran fired missiles at a US base in Iraq, in retaliation for the killing of General Qassem Soleimani.
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