Israel says it has killed 3 Hezbollah commanders, some 70 fighters in 48 hours

TEL AVIV/JERUSALEM/CAIRO - Israel's military said it had killed three Hezbollah commanders and some 70 fighters in southern Lebanon in the past 48 hours, a day after confirming it had killed Hashem Safieddine, the militant group's heir apparent leader.

"In southern Lebanon, IDF troops continue conducting limited, localised, targeted raids against Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure and operatives," the Israel Defense Force (IDF) said in a statement.

"Over the past day, the troops eliminated approximately 70 terrorists in ground and aerial strikes," it said.

Israel expanded its evacuation warnings to several central neighborhoods in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre on Wednesday, ordering people to evacuate north out of the city.

Israel has been carrying out an escalating offensive in Lebanon after a year of border clashes with Hezbollah, the most formidably armed of Iran's proxy forces across the Middle East.

Israel's offensive has driven at least 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes and killed 2,530 people, including at least 63 over the past 24 hours, the Lebanese government said on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the IDF said it had confirmed the killing of Hashem Safieddine, the heir apparent to its leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed in an Israeli attack last month.

The military said Safieddine was killed in a strike carried out three weeks ago in Beirut's southern suburbs, its first confirmation of his death. Earlier this month, Israel said he had probably been eliminated.

There was no immediate response from Hezbollah to Israel's statement that it had killed Safieddine.

"We have reached Nasrallah, his replacement and most of Hezbollah's senior leadership. We will reach anyone who threatens the security of the civilians of the State of Israel," said Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi.

A relative of Nasrallah, Safieddine was appointed to its Jihad Council — the body responsible for its military operations — and to its executive council, overseeing Hezbollah's financial and administrative affairs.

Safieddine assumed a prominent role speaking for Hezbollah during the last year of hostilities with Israel, addressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long been unable to attend for security reasons.

Israel has so far shown no sign of relenting in its Gaza and Lebanon campaigns even after assassinating several leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, which lost Nasrallah, its powerful secretary-general, in a Sept. 27 airstrike.

Diplomats say Israel aims to lock in a strong position before a new US administration takes over following the Nov. 5 election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said on Wednesday it had attacked Israel's port city of Eilat with drones twice, striking "vital" targets, however Israeli military said it intercepted two drones which traveled over waters near Eilat.

The pro-Iranian militant group pledged to step up attacks on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians after Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, triggering the Gaza war.

The Islamic Resistance, Lebanon's Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthi militia, and various Shi'ite Muslim armed groups in Iraq and Syria, known as the "Axis of Resistance" to Israel and US, have vowed to support the Palestinians in their fight.

Blinken on Mideast tour

Israel's confirmation of Safieddine's death came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to capitalise on the killing of Hamas' leader Yahya Sinwar by securing the release of the Oct. 7 attack hostages and ending the war in Gaza.

After repeated abortive attempts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Blinken was making his 11th trip to the Middle East since the Gaza war erupted - and the last before a presidential election that could upend US policy.

Blinken was also seeking ways to defuse the conflict in Lebanon, where overnight at least 18 people were killed, including four children, and 60 injured by an Israeli airstrike near Beirut's main state hospital.

Blinken faced an uphill struggle on both fronts.

He spelled out US hopes that the death of Hamas leader Sinwar — blamed for triggering a year of devastating warfare by planning the deadly militant assault from Gaza on Israeli territory — will provide a new opportunity for peace.

In a statement issued by his office, Netanyahu said Sinwar's elimination "may have a positive effect on the return of the hostages, the achievement of all the goals of the war, and the day after the war".

But there was no mention of a possible ceasefire after a year of war in which Hamas' military capabilities have been greatly degraded and Gaza largely reduced to rubble, with most of its 2.3 million Palestinians displaced.

For its part, Hamas has refused to free scores of hostages in Gaza seized in its raid on Israel, without an Israeli pledge to end the war and pull out of the territory. Hezbollah has ruled out negotiations while fighting continues with Israel. —Reuters