Eurasia Press & News
Israel attacked southern Beirut again early this morning, a few hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump discussed the Iranian threat. The Israeli prime minister was among the first world leaders to congratulate Trump, calling his re-election the greatest comeback in history, reported Hina.
Israeli warplanes, according to Anadolu, carried out a series of airstrikes across Lebanon, including the southern suburbs of Beirut near the airport.
In a phone conversation, Trump and Netanyahu “agreed to work together on Israel’s security” and “discussed the Iranian threat,” according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office. Shortly afterward, the Israeli military launched attacks on Hezbollah’s main stronghold in southern Beirut, with AFP footage showing orange flashes and clouds of smoke above the densely populated suburb.
The Israeli military issued evacuation orders before the attack, urging people to leave four neighborhoods, including one near the international airport, reports Hina. In eastern Lebanon, the country’s health ministry announced that 40 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Wednesday, and rescuers are searching the rubble for survivors.
“A series of hostile Israeli attacks on the Bekaa Valley and the city of Baalbek killed 40 people and injured 53 others,” the ministry’s statement said. Hezbollah has vowed that the outcome of the U.S. elections will not affect the war, which escalated in September when the Israeli military shifted its focus from Gaza to securing its northern border with Lebanon.
In a televised speech recorded before Trump’s victory but aired afterward, Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, said: “We have tens of thousands of trained resistance fighters ready for battle. What will stop this… War is the battlefield.”
Qassem, who became Hezbollah’s Secretary-General last week, warned that no area in Israel would be off-limits. Yesterday, Hezbollah announced that it possesses Iranian-made Fatah 110 missiles, a weapon with a range of 300 kilometers, which military expert Riad Kahwaji described as the “most precise” weapon the group possesses.
The group claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Israel yesterday, including two targeting naval bases near the Israeli city of Haifa and two near the commercial center of Tel Aviv. Hezbollah began its low-intensity cross-border campaign last year in support of its ally Hamas following the October 7 attack by Palestinian militants on Israel.
Israel has intensified airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon, Beirut, and the eastern Bekaa Valley since September 23, deploying ground troops a week later. In over a year of fighting in Lebanon, at least 3,050 people have been killed, according to the health ministry.
