ARCHIVE – Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense of the United States, stands before journalists at the Ukraine Contact Group meeting at US Air Base Ramstein. Photo: Andreas Arnold/dpa
Keystone
While Israel’s political leadership is considering a retaliatory strike after Iran’s rocket attack, the army is continuing to fight Tehran’s allies in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip with continued ferocity.
After the end of the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, the military announced in the evening that it had killed dozens of fighters from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza in the past few hours. A total of 280 targets were attacked during the holiday.
Meanwhile, the Hezbollah militia continues to shell northern Israel. The sirens wailed again at night in the north of the Jewish state. The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported in the evening that more than a dozen people were killed and dozens injured in Israeli attacks in the country. The information could not initially be independently verified.
According to reports there, Israel’s military is said to have attacked, among other things, a market in the south of the neighboring country. Israeli warplanes attacked the market in the center of the town of Nabatiya, the Lebanese state news agency NNA reported. Israel’s army did not initially comment. Videos circulating on social media appear to show destruction after the attack.
USA worries about UN soldiers in Lebanon
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart Joav Galant and, according to the Pentagon, expressed “deep concern” about reports that Israeli soldiers shelled UN posts in Lebanon and that two Lebanese soldiers were killed. Austin emphasized the importance of ensuring the safety of the peacekeepers of the UN mission Unifil and the Lebanese armed forces. He also stressed the need to move from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic path as soon as possible.
Iran bans radios on flights
Following the apparently coordinated explosions of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon, Iranian authorities have banned all passengers from carrying such radios on flights. The new order applies to both hand luggage and checked suitcases, a spokesman for the Iranian aviation authority said, according to the Isna news agency. Passengers are only allowed to take their cell phones on board.
In September, numerous pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militia exploded. At least 39 people were killed and around 3,000 were injured, some seriously. The victims were mostly Hezbollah members. The Islamic Republic of Iran is Hezbollah’s closest ally in the fight against arch-enemy Israel. Both blamed the Israeli secret service Mossad for the pager attacks.
After the Iranian rocket attack on Israel on October 1st, there are fears in Tehran that a similar Mossad operation could also be carried out against Iran. Israel threatened “deadly and precise” retaliation after the attack with around 200 rockets.
Israel’s army: Dozens of projectiles again from Lebanon
Israel’s military said late in the evening that around 40 projectiles had been fired again in several volleys from Lebanon. Some of them were intercepted, the rest fell in open areas. Hezbollah previously fired around 320 rockets and drones at Israel on the Yom Kippur holiday. Here too, most of them were intercepted by air defense and the rest fell into open areas. This information also could not be independently verified. Near the city of Acre, two Israelis suffered minor injuries from bullet fragments, Israeli media reported.
Israel’s army has significantly stepped up its fight against the Hezbollah militia since September. This includes massive airstrikes and a ground offensive in Lebanon. Over the past day, the troops had “eliminated” 50 terrorists in close combat and with air strikes in “precise” operations in southern Lebanon, the army said. Underground tunnels, weapons depots, rocket launchers, mortars and anti-tank missiles were discovered. The air force also bombed an underground weapons depot on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Israel’s army continues to advance in Gaza
At the same time, Israeli troops continued their operations throughout the Gaza Strip. Dozens of terrorists were killed, the military said. In the area of Jabalia in the north of the sealed-off coastal area, more than 20 terrorists were “eliminated” during the day by tank fire, close-range gunfire and air strikes. Since the beginning of ongoing operations in this area, around 200 terrorists have been “eliminated,” it said. A number of terrorists were also killed in the central section of Gaza and in the Rafah area in the south.
According to the Pentagon, in the conversation with his Israeli colleague Galant, US Defense Secretary Austin once again pointed out the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the devastated Gaza Strip, which urgently needs to be improved. At the same time, Austin reaffirmed the United States’ “steadfast, enduring and ironclad commitment” to Israel’s security. The USA is the Jewish state’s most important ally.
SDA
