The Israeli military said it was striking Hezbollah targets throughout the day, including attacks by fighter jets on about 45 targets near a village in southern Lebanon.
“It’ll take him months on end to train for the job,” Gadi Eisenkot, a highly respected former Israeli military chief and member of the opposition, said at the time.
The Israeli military confirmed earlier Sunday that it had targeted positions in Yemen, including power plants and a seaport in Ras Issa and Hodeidah.
Israeli military says it attacked Houthi targets in Yemen Israel has launched airstrikes at the Yemeni ports of Hodeidah and Ras Isa.
Abbas Nilforoushan was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut, Lebanon on Friday, alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and a number of other Hezbollah commanders.
What’s new in the Middle East today: Hezbollah commanders killed as the war with Israel rages on.
Here’s a recap of Sunday’s events as we continue to cover the battle in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah:.
• The Lebanese health ministry reports that over 350 people were injured and over 100 people killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon today. Fighter jet attacks on approximately 45 targets close to a village in southern Lebanon were among the many Hezbollah targets that the Israeli military claimed to be hitting during the day.
Nabil Qaouk, a prominent figure and member of Hezbollah’s central council, was among the three senior Hezbollah commanders who were confirmed to have been killed on Sunday. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, was killed in an attack on Friday at an underground headquarters, according to the Israel Defense Forces, where over 20 members of the organization, representing a range of ranks, were present. On Sunday, it named numerous others, including Ibrahim Hussein Jazini, the leader of Nasrallah’s security team, and associates.
• Israel has also launched strikes in Yemen against what it claimed to be Houthi rebel bases. A statement from the Israeli Defense Forces stated that the attack was directed towards a seaport and power plants. Al-Masirah TV, which is owned by the Houthis, reports that at least four people—three engineers and a port worker—were killed and forty-five more injured. The Houthis are among the militant organizations supported by Iran that are crucial to the growing concerns of a wider regional conflict in the Middle East, along with Hamas and Hezbollah.
• Aid warnings: Relief International, an aid organization, stated on Sunday that an intensification of the fighting in Lebanon would have “extremely dire consequences” for the already worsening humanitarian situation in the nation. Numerous residential buildings and important infrastructure have been destroyed by Israeli strikes, forcing tens of thousands of people to live on the streets.
• On Sunday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he is appointing Gideon Sa’ar, a former rival, as a minister without a portfolio. According to analysts, the purpose of the move is to strengthen his domestic power base.
Official figures from Lebanon have been updated in this post.
Why pundits think Netanyahu is integrating his erstwhile opponent into the Israeli leadership.
According to experts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the choice to include former adversary Gideon Sa’ar in his administration in order to strengthen his support base at home.
The move was meant to have three effects, according to political strategist Nadav Shtrauchler, who worked closely with Netanyahu and told CNN about it.
First, he claimed that adding Sa’ar, a seasoned right-wing politician, would offer Netanyahu “more leverage” over Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right national security minister who has been found guilty of inciting terrorism in the past. “(Netanyahu) is not comfortable with Ben Gvir, and he is not trustworthy,”. “.
Secondly, according to Shtrauchler, Sa’ar might shield Netanyahu from the ultra-Orthodox parties, who have the ability to overthrow the government. Netanyahu’s alliance would be threatened by those parties’ proposal to enact legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military duty. Sa’ar reportedly maintains close ties with the most extreme Orthodox groups.
In light of the escalating conflict with Hezbollah and the potential for a ground invasion, the analyst concluded by telling CNN that greater political support is crucial.
On Sunday, Netanyahu declared that Sa’ar would become a minister without a portfolio upon joining the government.
“There is no point in continuing to sit in the opposition, in a situation where the positions of most of its members on the subject of the war are different and even far from my position,” Sa’ar declared on Sunday. It’s my responsibility to try to make a difference at the decision-making table during this time. “.
Further background: Netanyahu had planned to remove Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and replace him with Sa’ar, prior to Israel’s intensifying conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Because Sa’ar lacks experience in national security, national security heavyweights widely ridiculed the plan to appoint him as defense minister. The opposition figure and highly regarded former Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot stated at the time, “It’ll take him months on end to train for the job.”.
After leaving Netanyahu’s Likud party in 2020, Sa’ar founded New Hope, his own political party, but he was unable to secure a steady base of support. After October 7, he became a member of the emergency government, but he left this spring. Since then, he has been in negotiations with Netanyahu to rejoin the administration.
There are at least 4 dead and 45 injured from Israeli airstrikes in Yemen, according to the Houthis.
According to Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV, Israeli airstrikes on the Al-Hali power station in Hodeidah, Yemen, have resulted in at least four fatalities and forty-five injuries, including a port worker and three engineers.
Under the debris, rescue workers are looking for missing persons.
Power plants and a seaport in Ras Issa and Hodeidah, as well as other locations in Yemen, were among the targets that the Israeli military acknowledged earlier on Sunday. Israel asserted that the Houthis, a militant organization allied with Iran and hostile to Israel, were using the targets.
According to Houthi spokesman Muhammad Abdul Salam, “civilian facilities” were affected by the strike. “Attempts to undermine Yemen’s resolve to back Gaza,” according to Salam, who also declared that Yemenis would not waver in their support.
Recall that, as the Gaza conflict rages, the Houthi rebel group has escalated its attacks in vital Red Sea shipping lanes, claiming to be doing so in support of Palestinians.
The death of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has signaled yet another significant uptick in the Middle East and intensified concerns about a potential regional conflict involving Iran and its various proxy organizations.
According to the health ministry, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon on Sunday claimed the lives of at least 45 people.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israeli airstrikes on two separate locations in Lebanon on Sunday resulted in at least 45 fatalities and 76 injuries.
According to the ministry, there were at least 24 fatalities and 29 injuries in the southern Lebanese village of Ain al-Delb.
According to the ministry, there were at least 21 fatalities and 47 injuries in the Beqaa Valley of eastern Lebanon’s Baalbek-Hermel region.
Israel’s stepped-up bombardment of Lebanon in recent days has driven tens of thousands of civilians onto the streets. Israel has struck what it claims are Hezbollah targets buried in residential areas, demolishing residential buildings and destroying vital infrastructure.
Yemeni Houthi targets were attacked, according to the Israeli military.
Israel has attacked the Yemeni ports of Hodeidah and Ras Isa with airstrikes.
The Israel Defense Forces released a statement stating that the Israeli Air Force attacked a seaport and power plants.
The strikes were reported on Sunday by Al-Masirah TV, which is run by the Houthis. The report confirmed that the strikes had targeted the ports as well as the electrical stations in Ras Katheeb and Al-Hali.
“The Houthi regime transfers Iranian weapons and supplies for military needs to the region through the attacked infrastructure and ports, and consequently also oil,” the IDF stated in the statement.
In response to the most recent attacks on the State of Israel by the Houthi regime, it was stated that the attack was launched. “.
In a social media post, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed to have watched the attack from an Air Force control room. “No place is too far” for Israel to reach, according to Gallant.
Later on, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi repeated that sentiment, stating that the strikes “carry a message” that the military “knows how to reach even farther, and we know how to strike there with precision.”. “.
Recall that the Houthis are part of the Iranian proxy network that is hostile to Israel, along with Hezbollah and Hamas.
Following Hamas’ October 7 attacks and the Israeli military offensive that followed, there have been more clashes between the Iran-backed groups. The Houthis claim that their attacks on vessels in vital shipping lanes are motivated by their solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Fears of a wider regional war involving Iran and the various militant groups have intensified following the death of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, signaling yet another significant uptick in the Middle East.
Updated this post with remarks from officials in Israel.
Iran’s foreign minister declares that the death of a senior IRGC commander in Beirut “will not go unanswered.”.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, declared on Sunday that his country “will not go unanswered” to Israel’s killing of a senior commander in the country’s formidable Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Along with Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, and several other commanders, Abbas Nilforoushan was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday.
Araghchi declared in a statement, “There is no doubt that this horrible crime committed by the Zionist regime will not go unanswered.”.
After Nasrallah was killed, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, declared on Sunday that armed groups with ties to Iran would still fight Israel.
Qalibaf declared, “We will not think twice about going to any length in order to support the resistance.”.
Additionally, he asserted that the US “has to accept the repercussions… for being complicit in all of these crimes.”. “.
Another senior Hezbollah official has reportedly been killed, according to the Israeli military.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared on Sunday that they had killed Nabil Qaouk, a member of Hezbollah’s central council and the commander of the organization’s preventive security unit, in an airstrike on Saturday. It did not specify the location of the strike.
Hezbollah hasn’t yet responded to the IDF’s assertions.
In October 2020, the US designated Qaouk as a global terrorist, citing his representation of Hezbollah at events honoring the terrorist organization’s dead as well as the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020.
