The Fort Worth Press - Israeli army says hit Hezbollah arms facilities

USD -
AED 3.67293
AFN 66.808477
ALL 91.407915
AMD 386.590294
ANG 1.800361
AOA 911.999653
ARS 984.705864
AUD 1.502878
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.69479
BAM 1.812739
BBD 2.016962
BDT 119.369369
BGN 1.81456
BHD 0.376948
BIF 2900.74567
BMD 1
BND 1.319591
BOB 6.902273
BRL 5.689796
BSD 0.99898
BTN 84.067401
BWP 13.328452
BYN 3.26907
BYR 19600
BZD 2.013532
CAD 1.38163
CDF 2849.99988
CHF 0.86571
CLF 0.03426
CLP 945.329729
CNY 7.114103
CNH 7.119295
COP 4308.5
CRC 515.064024
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 102.199422
CZK 23.336977
DJF 177.884883
DKK 6.90502
DOP 60.163408
DZD 133.507378
EGP 48.777903
ERN 15
ETB 119.059501
EUR 0.92548
FJD 2.23975
FKP 0.765169
GBP 0.771675
GEL 2.739745
GGP 0.765169
GHS 16.097579
GIP 0.765169
GMD 70.000367
GNF 8617.070085
GTQ 7.724391
GYD 208.8292
HKD 7.76945
HNL 25.177612
HRK 6.88903
HTG 131.458576
HUF 372.577496
IDR 15571
ILS 3.77659
IMP 0.765169
INR 84.07295
IQD 1308.635567
IRR 42092.500028
ISK 137.989795
JEP 0.765169
JMD 158.541841
JOD 0.708898
JPY 152.005014
KES 128.859915
KGS 85.503383
KHR 4063.416737
KMF 455.850288
KPW 899.999774
KRW 1379.280323
KWD 0.30638
KYD 0.832414
KZT 485.286076
LAK 21947.353786
LBP 89454.537028
LKR 293.187506
LRD 192.294146
LSL 17.591621
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.812309
MAD 9.896378
MDL 17.925665
MGA 4629.736907
MKD 56.942812
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3398.000028
MOP 7.994921
MRU 39.727684
MUR 46.190471
MVR 15.34978
MWK 1732.142609
MXN 19.799096
MYR 4.350502
MZN 63.894655
NAD 17.591458
NGN 1642.369841
NIO 36.759492
NOK 10.924035
NPR 134.510773
NZD 1.65921
OMR 0.384979
PAB 0.998869
PEN 3.746895
PGK 3.993864
PHP 57.923973
PKR 277.453981
PLN 4.016696
PYG 7925.665029
QAR 3.642531
RON 4.602902
RSD 108.331961
RUB 96.871819
RWF 1351.104602
SAR 3.755314
SBD 8.285573
SCR 13.620121
SDG 601.50432
SEK 10.56287
SGD 1.31967
SHP 0.765169
SLE 22.699692
SLL 20969.496802
SOS 570.861854
SRD 33.610995
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.740303
SYP 2512.530268
SZL 17.582723
THB 33.6725
TJS 10.638318
TMT 3.51
TND 3.115152
TOP 2.3421
TRY 34.255501
TTD 6.786479
TWD 32.067503
TZS 2728.515972
UAH 41.208366
UGX 3661.068476
UYU 41.411398
UZS 12803.662956
VEF 3622552.534434
VES 39.412673
VND 25410
VUV 118.722039
WST 2.801184
XAF 607.989656
XAG 0.029645
XAU 0.000367
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.749471
XOF 607.986838
XPF 110.536975
YER 250.397579
ZAR 17.659298
ZMK 9001.196363
ZMW 26.496432
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    0.0100

    63.01

    +0.02%

  • CMSC

    -0.0950

    24.64

    -0.39%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0200

    7.27

    -0.28%

  • SCS

    -0.3400

    12.47

    -2.73%

  • BCC

    0.2600

    133.91

    +0.19%

  • CMSD

    -0.1700

    24.76

    -0.69%

  • BCE

    -0.1100

    33.21

    -0.33%

  • RELX

    -0.2000

    46.82

    -0.43%

  • RIO

    -0.9900

    64.49

    -1.54%

  • NGG

    0.1500

    66.44

    +0.23%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    13.05

    -0.15%

  • GSK

    -0.0200

    37.98

    -0.05%

  • VOD

    -0.0900

    9.46

    -0.95%

  • BP

    -0.2700

    31.31

    -0.86%

  • AZN

    -0.3700

    76.95

    -0.48%

  • BTI

    -0.1800

    34.71

    -0.52%

Israeli army says hit Hezbollah arms facilities
Israeli army says hit Hezbollah arms facilities / Photo: © AFP

Israeli army says hit Hezbollah arms facilities

The Israeli military said Thursday it hit Hezbollah weapons production facilities in the group's south Beirut bastion, in some of the fiercest strikes on the area since the Lebanon war began.

Text size:

At least 17 raids levelled six buildings, according to Lebanon's official National News Agency, with a huge ball of fire enveloped in a tower of smoke soaring into the night sky.

Israel is fighting Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon and has vowed to retaliate against Iran for an October 1 missile attack.

The war in Lebanon began late last month, nearly a year after Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border fire into Israel in support of Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack.

"Overnight, the IAF (air force) conducted intelligence-based strikes on several weapons storage and manufacturing facilities belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation" in the southern suburbs of the capital, the Israeli military said.

It said that it had "struck more than 160 Hezbollah targets over the past day, including infrastructure sites across Lebanon".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived on Thursday in Qatar, a key mediator in efforts to end the war in Gaza, following visits to Israel and Saudi Arabia.

On his 11th trip to the region since the start of the Gaza war, Blinken told Israel to avoid further escalation with Iran, and is seeking headway with Saudi Arabia on a normalisation deal with Israel.

But with wars raging in Lebanon and Gaza, there was little sign that Blinken's latest trip would secure a ceasefire.

In Lebanon, the NNA called the nighttime raids on the southern suburbs "the most violent in the area since the beginning of the war".

Six buildings were destroyed around the neighbourhood of Laylaki, the NNA said, including a residential complex hit by four Israeli strikes that caused "a large fire".

AFPTV footage showed a massive explosion followed by smaller blasts after the Israeli army issued an Arabic-language evacuation warning for the area, where Hezbollah holds sway.

There was no warning, however, for a strike that hit the nearby Jnah neighbourhood, killing one person and wounding five, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

- 'The whole city shook' -

In south Lebanon, Israeli strikes pounded Tyre on Wednesday, leaving swaths of its centre in ruins and sparking a new exodus from the once vibrant coastal city.

"The whole city shook," said resident Rana, who fled to the seafront after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning.

Bilal Kashmar of Tyre's disaster management unit said seven buildings were levelled and more than 400 apartments damaged.

"You could say that the entire city of Tyre is being evacuated," he told AFP.

Black smoke was seen rising from several neighbourhoods, with some areas just 500 metres (550 yards) from the city's ancient ruins.

UNESCO said it was "closely following" the conflict's impact on Tyre's World Heritage site.

- 'Escalation' warning -

The Gaza war began with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 42,792 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the UN considers reliable.

Blinken said Israel had "achieved most of its strategic objectives" in Gaza and should now aim for lasting success.

"Now is the time to turn those successes into enduring, strategic success," he said after meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials.

Addressing Israel's pledge to retaliate for Iran's October 1 attack, he said: "It's also very important that Israel respond in ways that do not create greater escalation."

Speaking at a summit in Russia, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian urged BRICS nations to help "end the war" in Gaza and Lebanon.

A Hamas official said a delegation led by a top official in the movement arrived in Moscow for talks.

- 'We are freezing' -

In Gaza, tens of thousands of civilians were trapped in the aid-starved north, where Israel launched a major air and ground assault this month.

Blinken acknowledged "progress" on aid for Gaza but said more needed to be done.

With winter approaching, displaced Gazans fear the cold.

Ahmad al-Razz said he sewed sacks together to make his tent on the beach near Deir el-Balah.

"We are freezing every night because we are right by the sea, and we have no blankets or coverings to keep us warm," the 42-year-old said.

The World Health Organization said it was forced to postpone the last phase of a polio vaccination drive in Gaza due to "intense bombardment" in the north.

- Netanyahu says Hezbollah plotted 'invasion' -

With Hamas weakened but not crushed by a year of war in Gaza, Israel ramped up its strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon and sent in ground forces on September 30.

The war in Lebanon has killed at least 1,580 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah said it had fired rockets into several areas of Israel, including a salvo that forced Israeli troops to "retreat behind the frontier" after they attempted to infiltrate from the outskirts of the south Lebanon village of Aitarun.

The Israeli army said air raid sirens sounded across central Israel after "projectiles" were fired from across the Lebanese border.

Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel had uncovered that Hezbollah had been plotting an "attack even greater than on October 7" involving jeeps, missiles and underground tunnels.

"They were planning an invasion," the premier told French broadcasters CNews and Europe 1.

F.Carrillo--TFWP