Israel and Hezbollah exchanged more fire ahead of the first anniversary of the Hamas attack, which triggered a war in Gaza and further escalated tensions in the Middle East.
Here Are Top Points On Middle East Tensions:
- Israel continued air strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday as part of its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the Iran-backed group is based.
- The Israeli military said it “struck Hezbollah terrorist targets and weapons storage facilities in Beirut”. It also said Israeli warplanes hit targets belonging to Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut.
- Hezbollah said it hit a military base south of Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, with “Fadi 1” missiles. Israeli media reported 10 people were injured in the country’s north.
- In the Gaza Strip, at least 26 people were killed when Israeli airstrikes hit a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people on Sunday. Israel said it had conducted “precise strikes on Hamas terrorists”.
- Israel and Hezbollah started fighting across the Lebanese border after the war in Gaza erupted when Hamas, a Hezbollah ally also backed by Iran, attacked Israeli towns on October 7 last year.
- Hamas members killed about 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliation has since then killed more than 41,000 people, the majority of them civilians.
- More than 2,000 people have also been killed in Lebanon in nearly a year of fighting.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to achieve victory and said his country’s military “completely transformed reality” in the year since Hamas’s October 7 attack.
- Netanyahu told troops Israel “will win” as they fought in Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
- Tel Aviv may also strike its regional foe Iran, which had fired more than 180 missiles into Israel as a response to Israeli killings of Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
