Latest news with #HassanAliBadir
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israeli airstrike kills 4 in Lebanon; U.N. demands answers over Gaza aid workers found in mass grave
An Israeli airstrike killed four people in Beirut early Tuesday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, rocking an already shaky ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The operation marks the latest threat to a fragile four-month truce during which both Israel and Hezbollah have accused each other of violating its terms, and came the day after United Nations officials demanded 'answers and justice' over the discovery of the bodies of 15 aid workers found in a mass grave in the Gaza Strip. In a joint statement, the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet — Israel's internal security agency — and its Mossad intelligence agency, said the strike on the southern Beirut suburb and Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh had killed Hassan Ali Badir, who they said was a Hezbollah militant and member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard who had recently assisted Hamas. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told a press briefing Tuesday that Badir was a 'ticking bomb' for an attack in the immediate future, adding that Israel expected the Lebanese government to act against any terrorists operating within its territory. While Hezbollah did not confirm whether Badir had been killed, Ibrahim Al-Moussawi, one of the group's members of Lebanon's Parliament, condemned the operation that left seven people injured and said it violated international laws. 'What happened was a major aggression that took the situation to a completely new phase,' Al-Moussawi told NBC News. 'We hold the international community and the United States responsible for this crime.' Lebanese President Joseph Aoun also criticized the bombardment, saying in a post on X on Tuesday that Israel's growing aggression in Lebanon had prompted the country to seek support from its international allies. Israel did not issue any evacuation warnings for the area ahead of the strike, while the State Department said in a statement Tuesday that hostilities had resumed 'because terrorists launched rockets into Israel from Lebanon,' Reuters reported. Israel and Hezbollah's yearlong conflict was paused in November by a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, which required both Israeli troops and the Iran-backed militant group to vacate southern Lebanon while Lebanese troops were deployed to the area. Both sides have accused each other of violating those terms after Israel delayed its withdrawal in January and said it had intercepted rockets fired from Lebanon in March, for which Hezbollah denies responsibility. The current conflict between Israel and Lebanon erupted after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with its ally Hamas, following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of Oct. 7 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials. Since then, Israel's ongoing military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 50,000 people, including thousands of children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the enclave run by the militant group. The ministry said Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed 42 people in the past 24 hours, with many victims still trapped under rubble. That figure has continued to climb since Israel's military shattered a two-month-old ceasefire last month, with its assault on the enclave having since intensified with the stated aim of eliminating Hamas to prevent a repeat of the Oct. 7 attacks. On Monday, U.N. officials demanded 'answers and justice' from Israel after the bodies of 15 aid workers were found buried in a mass grave in the southern Gaza Strip. The humanitarian workers, who worked for the Red Crescent, Palestinian Civil Defense and the U.N., had been killed and buried in the sand near 'wrecked & well-marked vehicles' while trying to save lives, U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said in a post on X on Monday. The bodies included eight of the nine aid workers who had gone missing when tending to the injured in Rafah on March 23, with one worker still unaccounted for, the Red Cross and the Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement Monday. They added that the bodies of six civil defense members and one U.N. employee had also been recovered. Israel's military has not yet commented on why the bodies were buried beneath the sand or why the vehicles were found crushed. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian Refugees, said the discarded bodies had amounted to "a profound violation of human dignity' in a post on X om Monday. The incident has brought the death toll of aid workers in Gaza to 408, he added. This article was originally published on
Asharq Al-Awsat
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israel Says It 'Eliminated' Operative for Hezbollah and Iran in Beirut Strike
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had "eliminated" Hassan Ali Badir, a Hezbollah and Iran Quds Forces operative, in an overnight strike on Beirut's southern suburbs. At least three people were killed and seven wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs early on Tuesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, further testing a shaky four-month ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The Israeli military said in a statement that it attacked a Hezbollah militant "who had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them". The attack took place a few days after a previous strike by Israel on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh. There was no immediate statement from Hezbollah on the identity of the target. The strike appeared to have damaged the upper three floors of a building in Beirut's southern suburbs, a Reuters reporter at the scene said, with the balconies of those floors blown out. The glass on the floors below was intact, indicating a target strike. Ambulances were at the scene to recover casualties. There was no evacuation warning issued for the area ahead of the strike, and families fled in the aftermath to other parts of Beirut, according to witnesses. The ceasefire agreement halted the year-long conflict and mandated that southern Lebanon be free of Hezbollah fighters and weapons, that Lebanese troops deploy to the area and that Israeli ground troops withdraw from the zone. But each side accuses the other of not entirely living up to those terms. However, the US-brokered truce has looked increasingly flimsy lately. Israel delayed a promised troop withdrawal in January and said that it had intercepted rockets fired from Lebanon in March, which led it to bombard targets in Beirut's southern suburbs and southern Lebanon. The Iran-aligned Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the rocket firings. The US State Department said on Tuesday that Israel was defending itself from rocket attacks that came from Lebanon and that Washington blamed "terrorists" for the resumption of hostilities. "Hostilities have resumed because terrorists launched rockets into Israel from Lebanon," a State Department spokesperson said in an email, adding Washington supported Israel's response. The Israeli-Lebanese conflict, in which thousands of people have been killed, was ignited by the Gaza war in 2023 when Hezbollah started firing rockets at Israeli military positions in support of its ally Hamas. The Gaza war, in which Palestinian health authorities say more than 50,000 people have been killed, was triggered when the Hamas group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
NBC News
01-04-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Israeli airstrike kills 4 in Lebanon; U.N. demands answers over Gaza aid workers found in mass grave
An Israeli airstrike killed four people in Beirut early Tuesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, rocking an already shaky ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The operation marks the latest threat to a fragile four-month truce during which both Israel and Hezbollah have accused each other of violating terms, and came the day after United Nations officials demanded 'answers and justice' over the discovery of the bodies of 15 aid workers found in a mass grave in Gaza. In a joint statement, the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet — Israel's internal security agency — and its Mossad intelligence agency, said the strike on the southern Beirut suburb and Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh had killed Hassan Ali Badir, who it said was a Hezbollah militant and member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who had recently assisted Hamas. While Hezbollah did not confirm whether Badir had been killled, Ibrahim Al-Moussawi, one of the group's members of Lebanon's parliament, condemned the operation that left seven people injured and said it violated international laws. 'What happened was a major aggression that took the situation to a completely new phase,' Al-Moussawi told NBC News. 'We hold the international community and the United States responsible for this crime.' Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun also criticized the bombardment, saying in a post on X Tuesday that Israel's growing aggression in Lebanon had prompted the country to seek support from its international allies. Israel did not issue any evacuation warnings for the area ahead of the strike, while the U.S. State Department said in a statement Tuesday that hostilities had resumed 'because terrorists launched rockets into Israel from Lebanon,' Reuters reported.
Reuters
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Israel says it 'eliminated' operative for Hezbollah and Iran in Beirut strike
April 1 (Reuters) - The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had "eliminated" Hassan Ali Badir, a Hezbollah and Iran Quds Forces operative, in an overnight strike on Beirut's southern suburbs. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here.
